Until The Stage Was Left Deserted

Butch Hancock : The Wind's Dominion

It was the pivotal teaching
of Pluthero Quexos,
the most celebrated dramatist
of the Second Dominion,
that in any fiction,
no matter how ambitious
its scope or profound its theme,
there was only ever room
for three players.
Between warring kings,
a peacemaker;
between adoring spouses,
a seducer or a child.
Between twins,
the spirit of the womb.
Between lovers, Death.
Greater numbers might
drift through the drama,
of course---thousands in fact
---but they could only ever
be phantoms, agents,

or, on rare occasions,
reflections of the three
real and self-willed beings
who stood at the center.
And even this essential trio
would not remain intact;
or so he taught.
It would steadily diminish
as the story unfolded,
three becoming two,
two becoming one,
until the stage was left deserted.
--Clive Barker
Imajica

IF YOU WERE A BLUEBIRD
MOANING OF THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN