Alchemisland

Yeah you’ve seen outside, the mighty walls, wrought of blue brick in tribute

To Nimrod who arraigned with unfit gifts the empty, godless fires he upheld as tribune,

And his wicked Ishtar in purity-tarnishing Babylon of the heretical stricture

Plus the maze you might have copped on your way

But the really amazing stuff’s inside, the antiquities and the pictures

I can tell you’re hesitant, trust me as head resident

You won’t see a better sunken head collection

Outside the Ark of Tradescant, I’ve got a trellis from headless Versaille

6th century locks once wind-wobbled below the bridge of sighs

A never published Marlowe work, a novel concerning odious Time

Alchemical textbooks and ritual rudiments, before the illusions of science

Before reason’s rise

Idols from the time before, from epochs violent and flawed

Ended by awe-inducing seismic catastrophes

It all starts and ends with less than a sigh

From the walls of my braincase

Scraped striated by imprisoned maniacs

Daubed with names pertinent only to the insane therein gaoled.