Locusta walks among open graves,
pouring aconite into a cup that no longer reflects the moon.
A drop falls, and a child stops crying in the nearest cradle.
Canidia raises her left hand,
crows descend from the Tiber like liquid pitch,
covering her face, entering her gaping mouth.
lets them carry the eyes of all traitors hanged at dawn. They leaf through the volume written in virgin blood,
Pages bleed secrets of the dead,
lines bind the world in silent torment.
Deadly nightshade drips through Locusta’s fingers,
its dark juice sliding from the berry,
like the last thought
of one swallowed by darkness,
lost for eternity.
No fire,
no blood spilled,
air heavy as lead,
lungs surrendering.
When they pass,
wheat bends until it breaks,
mothers clutch their children,
already feeling hearts stop.
Veneficium
is not a spell;
death breathing softly within you,
since time immemorial. Close your eyes,
the crows are counting:
one,
two,
…the third never comes.
No fire,
no blood spilled,
air heavy as lead.
Other lyrics by Opera IX:
Asphodelios
Pale blossoms sway where the sun is exiled, fields of asphodel stretching into silence. The air is heavy with absence, every breath a remembrance already dissolving. A …
Black Sabbath
What is this that stands before me? Figure in black which points at me Turn ‘round quick and start to run Find out I’m the chosen one Oh, no Big black shape …
Defixiones
I carve your name into lead, blood and iron merging with my wrath. Every stroke drags your soul deeper into the void where the dead scream. I curse you with fire in my …
Gratidia
Sotto le radici contorte, ove il fiato dei sepolti ancor dimora, moveansi nell’ombra donne dal volto celato, con le man ghiaccianti come pietra, e l’animo …
Hortus Sagae
In the breathing garden, where roots remember names older than fire, the air folds in on itself. Something stirs beneath the soil of night. Herbs marked by wandering …