CW: none.
The opening line is my riff on Bach’s chorale prelude “Come, Sweet Death,” one of his most profound. The foxfur wings I feel come from Well’s “In the Avu Observatory,” a surrealistic short story where an astronomer in the islands of Indonesia is attacked by a large flying bat-creature. The last stanza is Dante, by way of Eliot’s “Waste Land.” Pound said to make it new. So I did.
come ensabled night
and spread your foxfur wings
about me
only in darkness
when I blink my eyes and see
nothing
only then
do all those gone
visit me
I never wished
to unknow
so many.