~ LES * FLEURS * DU * MAL ~
*
The dark Satanic mills cast coal black shadows Over the once green hills and to the far away meadows Surrounded by a forest of oak and ash sooted grey Where Loz the Smithy beat his hammer Over an anvil with lungs of bellowed charcoal An eternal starless night of smouldering fires
*
The forge was by a river and beneath a pillar of smoke The blacksmith bitterly cursed the overhanging Spectre In that land of burning sands and fiery lakes Where fell an incessant iron hail A land snared with tyranny and murder Its denizens all with an ink black anxiety
*
*
Howling with fury at the shadow of Death Loz declared unterrified over the furnace At the opaque fiend panting like a frightened wolf in darkness "What cruelties behold in Nineveh!" Then seizing a sword of war forged with a hammer of gold And with just a twang of a bow and arrow the Spectre was slain
*
Clay once again baked glowing in the furnace Turning the Wheels of Albion's sons Towards Eden with gold silver brass and iron Loud was the roll of the Starry Wheels A dark Spectre slain instantly and decapitated by Loz's sword At the gates of the forge the bells of Albion resounded
*
*
The remnants of that harsh Spectre was magically smelting In the furnace into Diamonds Emeralds Amethyst Rubies Enstatite Sapphire and Topaz She now walks softly once again upon England's meadows green Her feet rest peacefully on golden pillars arching to the heavens And her eyes looking up to the firmament's starry constellations
*
( for D E A R E S T who wears the ring )
*
(Paintings by Anselm Kiefer)
Fleurs du Mal - A two part short film by Lawrence