WE ARE THE NAMES

We are the names - ten thousand times ten thousand. We whisper them in the dark, we whisper them in ears, in hearts, in souls. These are names for remembering, names for forgetting. The beast slams doors, shatters windows, rips up floors. The beast screams names into the dark shadows, smoke and flames surround him, caress him. Flowers sit on the floor, scattered in circles - remembrance. We are the numbers, the names of numbers. Shattered teeth and broken tongues speak ill of dead and living. They whisper of tokens and memories, of scratches and bites, of the deafening thunder of flapping wings, of flapping leather wings, those dark angels with their searching eyes. There are always whispers, and there are always names to those whispers. To walk the corridors, to stroll through dark lanes, monsters are abroad, always abroad. Chant the names of creature and angel, chant the names of bidden and forbidden. Chant the ten times ten thousand names.