Melange (Sanctity of Smoke)

a faint suggestion of winter's ambassador
still clings to the rafters.

ascending from chemical transmutation
(plant-cells into smoke)
curling coiling about
curious platinum serpents of
mist and shadows
trailing pungent purity behind their
lissome litheness,
their savory herbal shimmer
leaving no room for any
demonoid phenomenon
to take root in this space,
scalding away the scurrilous scabrous
with a cleansing hiss of silence,
sparkling up and away
from the stone altar
with its emberous charcoal.

spiral tiger's tails
ribboning off a luminous spark
race leisurely to mingle
with the sage-serpents,
aware
of their spicy multiplicity
musky and sensuous.

fragrant fractal dragons
leap headlong into the fray,
mingling amicably
with their incense-born kin
issuing from the bellows of the lungs
having completed their mission of mercy,
they now conspire with their cousins
to paint the whole room
in luminous scentsations.

copper
resting on the tongue
after xyresic explorations
sharpens the exhale to a half-salty undertone,
tinting the roiling air
with a heady odor of the lifeful,
razoring the tannery tang
of well-used leather
just faintly present
to a stimulating
edge.

outside,
a sublime rataplan
announces the arrival
of heavenly relief,
the voice of lightning barking fiercely above
marking its territory
storm's ozone pheromones
drifting in the window

eyes sliding closed,
he plays at dragons
with smoke streaming from his nose,
then settles back
allowing the progeny of fire
to caress his skyclad skin
as if bathing in
wyrm's breath.

sanctification.