Cardimum

C ome one and all, attend ye to my tale
Of Cardimum upon the mortal vale,
And pity, if within your heart there be
For nightmare fiend, a little sympathy.

An entity of superstitious lore,
As I have done ten thousand times before,
I visited a maid who's unmet need
Did generate the force on which I feed.

The engine of her dreaming turned and toiled
Til her cathedral body was gargoyled
As I, grotesquely man-shaped, came to rest
My clinging weight upon her sleeping breast.

And oh, this mortal maid did please me so.
Her radiated energy did flow.
Strength and vital force she fed to me,
Yet still, before the dawn, I had to flee...

~o~

In waking light the dreamer did forget,
But when at length the dreadful sun did set,
In summer somnolence my lover's yearning
Enabled, with the nightfall, my returning.

Again, inspired by her awful beauty,
I gleefully performed my demon's duty.
All through the short and sultry summer's night
Until anon, the cursed morning light.

And so it went til seven nights had passed,
Each one more delightful than the last.
From crescent, waxed the moon to hemisphere.
So too, grew I more comely to appear.

I seemed a youth of pale translucent flesh,
And as her body with mine own did mesh,
The half-moon's light I saw to my surprise,
Reflected in the maiden's open eyes!

~o~

Now here the tale of Cardimum doth turn,
For in her gaze, no fear did I discern.
She raised her graceful hand and touched my cheek,
And not a word did my beloved speak,

But As she lay beneath me on the bed
She looked into my amber eyes instead

Then with a strange expression of her face,
She drew me down into her warm embrace.

Ten times a thousand are the maidens fair
Who in their restless sleep knew I was there.
Some, starting up from this disturbing dream,
Awoke the household with a piercing scream!

But never waking woman did I see
Willing to embrace one such as me;
What I was wont to steal was freely given...
Thus creature born of hell discovered heaven.

~o~

Then coupled we, until the break of day,
And in the fading darkness as we lay
Together with our heated passion spent,
I kissed her wine-red lips before I went.

The gibbous moon arose, the eighth night came.
It was the night I learnt my lover's name:
Rebecca...even still it doth evoke
The summer's eve when first I heard it spoke.

Rebecca...I can feel the humid air,
Rebecca...I can see her waiting there,
Rebecca...Like a naked odalisque,
Rebecca...and the waxing lunar disc.

With every passing night her passion grew.
The ardor that I held for her did too.
More human grew the shape that I assumed,
But lo, I fell in love, and I was doomed.

~o~

There is a law that all the weir-folk know -
The seraphim in heaven do also.
For neither hell, nor paradise above,
But earth alone is home to mortal love.

To those who know the sorrow of the grave,
One gift is all that their creator gave.
The burden of their certain fate to bear,
Humankind was given love to share.

But woe to those immortals who partake,
And dare this sacred covenent to break!
While short-lived hearts are capable of mending,
For us, the suffering is never ending...

Yet Cardimum in fair Rebecca's arms,
Intoxicated by her earthly charms,
Failed, the ancient stricture to recall,
And loved the mortal maid in spite of all.

~o~

And as each night progressed, I loved her more.
Each night I seemed more human than before.
I manifested solid flesh and bone.
With pleasure, did I hear Rebecca moan.

And oh, the twelfth night was sweet bliss!
All was carnal joy and happiness.
Came then, the pinnacle of my delight...
I never will forget the thirteenth night!

Next eve, the baleful moon was full and round.
I entered on her room without a sound,
And and floated there in silent sinking dread...
Staring at Rebecca's empty bed.

I waited many hours in her room,
With lunar shadows crawling through the gloom.
When I could see the moonlight through my hand,
I knew that she had found a mortal man.