Coursing past the undertow
of darkling places
far within--
I chanced upon a hovering face
leering with a baleful cheer
growing thin--

This pale painted oracle,
freshly fled some
astral plane--
offered only silent mirth
drifting near for reasons
unexplained--

My heart thundered in its cage
as shadow winds
voiced my fear--
A surge of terror stilled all thought
I closed my eyes as the shade
swelled near--

I gathered all the freyed and
tattered threads of
my courage--
And sought out the wraith
a second time upon that
lightless stage--

But the spectral clown was gone
seeking elsewhere
undamning praise--
Shedding shape and substance in 
the flush of the dawn's
first faint rays--

Though questions lingered hauntingly
lonely stars out of reach
out of hand--
I could not stop to settle them
nor would I stir so far from 
home again--