Crossroad Pillar

Give me your ass. Not to invade But to shake. The glade coalesces around me When out of the under, a sound I panic, for something has found me, I feel a fox hearing a hound. (shiver if you are afraid of delight) Stomping and yelling and waving, A goaty old man-thing appears. The scent of his carnival craving Makes all the blood flood to my ears. (polish your armor, stay close to the light) The crust of the earth is his drums, A bass note the thrum in his veins, I stand paralyzed as he comes Dressed in millions of old broken reins. (try to diminish the being you fight) A wreath circumscribes the thing's head, He tosses it, winking, to me, Its branches are cut but not dead, The roots are entwined in the tree. (stiffen your backbone and buckle down tight) He shouts to me, "You live inside it; What's outside you can't understand; If you find the power to ride it, The spacecraft of You will be manned." (the beastly old man is out dancing tonight) Hereafter, all I need to know Is how to make the Damned Thing go. He told me (with a wicked grin) "To move, just pull the outside in. Learn to shake, Not to evade. Come get my ass."