Ragnarok - XX

"Man's voices have been silent for too long. His songs are gone long unsung. Man has been Long disenchanted in this latter age. What songs are sung in triumph, and what hymn Is raised to god or gods above the stars? How often is there heard the...

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Ragnarok - XIX

Somewhere, it was winter. Stars were lost Above the mottled, slate-hard clouds. The streets Were glazed with colorless lamplight. The air Was weary cold, and smelled of apathy. Somewhere it was January, or Some time that felt like it. Beside the...

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Ragnarok - XVIII

It reached not the blank bank of drifted snow that stopped up the entrance, and muffled the wild blizzard's howling into muted moans; no more a madness shriek, rather the slow vibrations, humming through the bone marrow from a finger along a goblet's

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Ragnarok - XVII

Said Varr, voice hollow like a man bereaved And echoing around the council hall, "Never before have I turned tail. What has Become of Last to Flee? If such as I, By death made undying, by corruption Made incorruptible in who we are, Already have...

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Ragnarok - XVI

"Mean you to slay this?" Varr said slowly, as The Sulfur Carrier stretched, its knees below The pit its impact had carved out, "Do you Yet say that this your sword shall cut down this Colossus, berserker?" Klau swallowed, and, With his eyes to...

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Ragnarok - XV

As haloed patriarchs, hewn from the stone Atop the arches, mid the cornices Where gargoyles grimace at the bitter taste Of dusty rainwater, watch heretics Self-excommunicated all depart, Stoic, still militant, and stony-faced Shed not one tear,...

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Ragnarok - XIV

One was tall and broad and blank of expression, as if asleep like porcelain guard dogs. the other short and stocky, full of sour looks, and in his beard he scowled suspiciously around.

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Ragnarok - XIII

Where once the yearly snowmelt flood had carved A narrow serpentine defile, that poured Itself onto the plains until there was No more snow left to melt, now were there walls And roof, rough hewn and roughly thrown into A rude, windowless,...

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Ragnarok - XII

Somewhere it was sunset. On the hills The last refractions of the scarlet sun Licked at the upper edges, like a flame About to catch on paper, but below All now was more than darkness, as the bars Crossed cruciform around a lantern wick Grow...

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Ragnarok - XI

Somewhere it was after midnight, when The long hours of the morning stretch ahead Sideways, so that they wider grow and can Contain more night and not take up more time. Somewhere a boxer wandered in his dreams Down streets abandoned, over bridges...

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Ragnarok - X

Like a gazebo in an empty park-- Where silent is the playground, where the paths No longer feel the tread of shoes or hear The jangle of the collar and the leash, Where wild and weedy tend the lawns, and trees Grow forestlike and rough--where once...

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Ragnarok - IX

Somewhere dusk was settling. The air Was stirring gently as one sleep deprived Whose body yearns so much to dream that it Rebels, and tries to slumber standing up Whenever and wherever mind and will Relax their vigilance. It moved the grass Upon...

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