It’s not what you know; it’s what you do with it.
Slunk: the skin of an unborn calf;
there is another word for the skin
of an unborn snow leopard.
Alembic: a vessel or flask, but anything
can be a vessel and serve to contain
fluids, liquid or gaseous. Some fluids
cannot be contained.
Caul: the translucent membrane enclosing
a fetus; it must be quickly retrieved
following a carnivore birth, before
the mother eats it. Its flavor is best
not described.
Glory: the halo of light formed around a shadow
cast upon mist; this light can be refined
and forged into a weapon.
Oculus: an opening for seeing through,
sometimes found, sometimes deliberate.
What can be seen through a naturally
formed hole in a small stone depends
on where the stone came from
and what left it behind.
Ecliptic: a great circle in the cosmos
representing the sun’s path over the course
of a year. Eclipses occur when the moon
crosses this path. What happens
when the moon crosses your path?
Cistern: an underground reservoir
for rainwater or other liquids. Dry,
it may serve to sequester a living
subject for a considerable time.
Soras: the length of an eclipse cycle
on the terrestrial plane. There are
other planes, glistening and golden.
Albedo: the measure of reflected light.
But you wished to measure
the reflection of darkness.
There are words for the precise stretching
of shadows, for the semen of a murderer,
for the eyelashes of a strangled faun,
for the foreskin of a demon, in languages
extinct for millennia in this universe.
The inflection changes depending on
whether it is an albino demon. After
memorizing the lexicon and syntax,
it’s only a matter of intention.
