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Cardimum

or Tale of the Incubus

by Badley Newscomb

Part 1.The Maiden


F rom the realm of drifting smoke
Where sun nor planets light the sky
Summoned by a maiden's want
To earthly shores departed I

Called forth from sweet oblivion
Where I abode in dreamless ease
By deep desire conjured up
To drift upon the midnight breeze

To the world of mortal flesh
Where light and substance intertwine
Beneath a phase-black lunar disc
My name and nature came to mind

The phantom lover Cardimum
In whisper and in legend known
And known too by my mocking sign the
Damp and rumpled sheets of dawn

And as I drank the sweet night air
That wafted o'er a mighty town
Amid the many-towered streets
My ghastly spirit drifted down

I gloated then in fiendish pride
Knowing soon that I would feed
Upon sweet nectar from the
Blooming flower of a maiden's need.

Beneath a lifted window sash
I entered on a quiet room
I smelt the smell of woman then
As heady as a sweet perfume

Pallid apparition I,
Gazing down upon her bed
Looked in wonder at this maid
To whom the trail of longing led.

And yes, I grinned with wicked joy
When I beheld this lovely thing
That summoned me from nothingness
In want of my fey servicing

For in the warm and sultry night,
Her bed clothes cast asunder
Like some delicious banquet feast
Set out to satisfy my hunger

Ebon hair in waves cascading
Formed a frame around her face
Arrayed in splendid glory there
Upon a linen pillowcase

As innocent as Eve did sleep before
The Temptor thought of clothes,
So too in summer's heat did she,
This maiden, lie in nude repose

I gazed in awe upon her form
So fair of limb and torso
No goddess of antiquity
Nor nymph was ever more so

Her skin like alabaster carved
By master sculptor's gifted hand
And yet suffused with flowing life
Was almost more than I could stand

Beneath closed lids those darting eyes
Bespoke a fev'rish dreaming state
Driven by the deep-felt power
Of her yearning to create

Thus in her presence formless ghost
Took shape and corporality
Transformed into the image
Her suppressed libido lent to me.

So reaching out my almost-arm
I lightly traced with finger tip
The bow of cupid outlined by
Her claret-colored upper lip

It crowned a mouth voluptuous
That parted slightly at my touch,
That in my halfway human form
Indeed did thrill me very much!

It set a pulsing in my blood
(Or ichor such as I possess)
As feather-light I placed my goblin
Hand upon her silken breast

Just then a moan of deep desire
Issued from my sleeping maid
Soft and faint as pan-pipes playing
In some distant forest glade

In restless summer slumber
She turned her lovely head
Her ivory brow was furrowed
As I climbed up on her bed

And stretched across her body
It began almost to seem
As though I were a human man
And not the creature of her dream

'Twas in this state of fancy that I
Gently kissed those claret lips
I lay me down beside her and I
Ran my hands along her hips

Then until the morning light
I loved her long, I loved her slow
Until at last with night I vanished
When the cock began to crow
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Part 2. The Waxing Moon


© 1996 Badley Newscomb