Despair

Pedantic ramblings through basement gloom
He brings to bear a caustic flame on the blackness
Like a war cry sending shadows to flight
A pack of wolves that bay after nighttide
But it refuses retreat

Mutterings in an ancient tongue, or a tongue gone ancient
The ritual continues
Past ebon creatures and black mist that haunt minds left vacant
It lingers

It defies transcription and laughs at description
Past waking moons and sorry tides the devil feasts on worry

Yet it is not the stuff of nightmares
And neither the thoughts that bring terror
It is not the blackness
And it is not mere emptiness

It is darkness of all devoid and the void of all darkness
The absence of absence
And the nihility of null

It is despair