Conceived with the autumn A viper at his feet with eyes like the keyholes of magic city gates A crooked child of specters A sign from above Who saw the stars on gravestones and sung the sky in blood Born into the cauldron of the witch superstitious currents pull me under to d**hward spirit spells of ghost-land rites in a coven craft of mysteries and wonder Incarnated over and over With stories that raised all the hairs on their heads He saw saints in the stairways and spoke with the dead They said he was a cursed child Possessed by unclean forms With angels at his bedside and devils at his door