Two Murders - Part Iii Finis

3. Death, the Master, wears a thousand faces. The white smile of the skull Lies behind the 5 O'Clock shadow And beneath, perhaps, those laughing eyes Looking your way across the bar. When the shock begins to fade I turn off the news. I turn once more to the business of living. To ponder overmuch over why such things happen Is to invite the spirit to drain itself down to hollowness. Before we cast off at night Onto the uncertain seas and shores of dreamlands, We might do well to take a long look down within, Call up and kiss the swarming demons goodnight While they stir in the strange shadowgaps of the long dark Resting there on the fringes of consciousness. Give ear to the language they speak down there, Learn dark things from the rumble of their mystic, thunderous litanies. Call for an uneasy peace with the Legions within, Hold them back, if you can, with our talismans, The magic words: Reason, Judgement, Morality. Tumble then into a warm bed Forget the Furies roaming just outside Awaiting dead hours to do their work. The deeds of the nighte Will be revealed When the mist wraiths steal away, When the sun bleeds rose light Across the white face of dawn.