This night is quiet, dark and deathly still

Encamped in this hollow valley

We marvel at stars who are also gods

Wolves stalk, and in the fire I see

Countless lives and deaths stretched all around me

Numberless generations who

In fire and pyre, slept, under moons long past.

Smoke rises to the black sky

Billowing. It dances like tidal pools.

Soft undulation. Wave motion.

Masked women gyrating around a fire

Drums. Drums. Rending holes through black night

I join my voice with them, shouting, as if

To pierce the gaps and reach the gods

My brothers join in around me, as we

Inhale smoke and howl like the wolves

Our foreheads glisten with blood of a Lamb

As we grope together, gathered

Around our fire in this twilight kingdom