THE GARGOYLE TRILOGY:

Gothic Rhymes by Brent Stephen Fusco

GARGOYLES I

The Illuminated Gargoyle

The illuminated gargoyle
Petrified in ache
Despite a chilling wisdom
Cannot a shiver break

Grotesque the granite sentry
Clairvoyant and opaque
Entombed in brilliant landslide
Cannot a comment quake

The Ululating Gargoyle

The ululating gargoyle
Gargling the rain
Garbling his fury
Babbling again

A flood of incoherence
Spouting from his snout
Gurgling his eloquence
Longing for the drought

Shadows of the Gargoyles

Shadows of the gargoyles
Grasping yearning toward the light
Growing nearer with each sunrise
Recoiling every night

Contorted by desire
Slinking gradually away
Anchored for eternity
And measuring each day

GARGOYLES II

The Animated Gargoyle

The animated gargoyle
Leaping proudly at the night
Assumes that his enchantment
Shall sustain him in his flight

The overconfident monument
Is but rock to the bone
And for all his desperate flapping
Shatters on the cobblestone

The Ghastly Giggling Gargoyle

The ghastly giggling gargoyle
Mouthing insults of abuse
Gazes gape-eyed at the gods
To whom he has no soul to lose

The introspective demiurge
Imagines renaissance
And sculpts himself in replica:
The laughing god he haunts

Gargoyles on Whaleback

Gargoyles on whaleback
Attacking missionary ships
Reducing them to timbers
Retreating to the mists

Crude sculptures in revolution
Avenging their chiseled scowls
No more defend against evils
Aflight on the backs of owls

GARGOYLES III

Gargoyles Slipping Seaward

Gargoyles slipping seaward
Taste the salty fate
Afflicting the faulty architecture
Of their heavenly estate

Dark angels overhanging
The ever-nearing waves
Have witnessed every ripple
Dancing on their someday graves

The Hollow Headless Gargoyle

The hollow headless gargoyle
Howling homage of the air
Prays only that the empty wind
Suspend him ever there

Whirlwinds within the walls
Of his excavated chest
Blow a cold echo
Of emptiness confessed

The Disintegrating Gargoyles

The disintegrating gargoyles
Are but claws against the wall
Clutching a shameful history
Absolved in black rainfall

The pitch and sulfur dropulets
Worming down the brick facade
Are the guts of gargoyles
Disembowled by acts of god