18 poisonous creatures.
Scorpions, frogs, snakes, centipedes, spiders.
All trapped inside my old, copper pot without food or water. A heavy rock keeps the lid on its place.
At first they struggle to get out of their cage but they soon realise that they are there for good.
Only the strongest will survive.
My heart is on the scorpion, my beloved Ku, who has been the winner of the arena so many times before. He is the only one who does not move towards the lid. He knows what needs to be done and waits his turn. Victorious Ku.
The constant scratching and shaking of the pot keeps me awake at night. It shakes on the kitchen table and fills me with anticipation; the strongest Gu is always produced from the most furious of battlefields.
I fear for Ku, he's been my protector and provider for so long, we are bound in life and death. What if he leaves me now? I sit by the kitchen table and sing for him, to know I care:
From thy false tears I did distil
An essence which hath strength to kill;
From thy own heart I then did wring
The black blood in its blackest spring;
From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake,
For there it coil'd as in a brake;
From thy own lip I drew the charm
Which gave all these their chiefest harm;
In proving every poison known,
I found the strongest was thine own.
(Incantation, Lord Byron)
An essence which hath strength to kill;
From thy own heart I then did wring
The black blood in its blackest spring;
From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake,
For there it coil'd as in a brake;
From thy own lip I drew the charm
Which gave all these their chiefest harm;
In proving every poison known,
I found the strongest was thine own.
(Incantation, Lord Byron)
The morning finds me next to a silent pot. I close my eyes and feel the cold copper, nothing stirs, there is only death. My hand shakes as I remove the heavy stone.
From thy false tears I did distil
An essence which hath strength to kill;
From thy own heart I then did wring
The black blood in its blackest spring;
From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake,
For there it coil'd as in a brake;
From thy own lip I drew the charm
Which gave all these their chiefest harm;
In proving every poison known,
I found the strongest was thine own.
(Incatation, Lond Byron)
An essence which hath strength to kill;
From thy own heart I then did wring
The black blood in its blackest spring;
From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake,
For there it coil'd as in a brake;
From thy own lip I drew the charm
Which gave all these their chiefest harm;
In proving every poison known,
I found the strongest was thine own.
(Incatation, Lond Byron)
Ku stands above the dead, he is the winner yet again. Now the only thing that needs to be done is do draw the Gu out of him with the gentlest hand I know he loves.
The deed is done, the witch is spared. Now it's time for the wheel to spin again.
