Fangs and Eyes They stare unblinking at each other, forever locked in an endless gaze Golden face and silver skin The animal and the man, when hearts match not the shell neither is safe, but only one is good For the lion’s heart is full of deeper magic ere the dawn of time and his eyes stop all foolish words, yet the other’s eyes provoke the giggles of brainless, clumsy, unguarded girls One knows the depths of my heart, a growing friendship since my youth; the pale-skinned, dark-eyed stranger lures in victims by his thoughts   I can hear them whispering at night when I’m halfway across sleep’s river “Why should I listen to you? I’m over one hundred, I know more than you?”   The strange, unearthly sound of the Lion’s laughter amusement at this petty boy “I am older than you, both in my tale and in my world. I made a world and died for it— can you say the same, pretty boy?”   “I saved a girl from a van—“   “Shall I tell you of my world? Shall I relate the whole of its time from the first note to the last darkness?”   For a moment, there is silence. I imagine cold skin, overdue for burial, and shiver wishing to bury my hands in the Lion’s golden mane   “Do you wish to be this monster?” The Lion asks   The boy’s skin sparkles like glitter against his flint eyes “I am myself. I am this.”   Tears dripped to the floor each more precious than the earth made of diamonds “There was another Ed once who rejected goodness but I paid his ransom— I could do the same for you, if you would accept it”   A quiet word hangs unspoken What is his answer?   BLARRR! I roll over and slam off my alarm They freeze in morning’s light two faces, the silver and the gold The gleaming fangs and the deep eyes