I wait, a copper coil of unsprung death

whispering tales of the afterlife

across the dunes and granite corridors.

Lovers, wars, empire lost,

I am all she desires now.

Moving in the coven of night,

a soothsayer's prediction

in the glowing sunset of her palace.

Flutes and harps silent,

only the whisper of guards

and they couldn't find me

nestled beneath the figs.

Curled in dizzy anticipation,

my fangs are sharply sweet.

Isis, Venus, a flaming phoenix,

her dazzling jewels glittering

as I taste the dark desert of her domain.

A kiss for the darkness,

the pearl dissolving in wine.

Her rising sun is now a burnished sunset

and her soul, a star in the sea.