The pond in the forest gleams
At the end of a Solstice Dream
One thousand eggs will hatch
In years to come
The thousandth one
Waited out the sun
When it hatched, was a Grand Worm
In the dark days of a very late Fall
One thousand years a worm shall crawl
Strange diseases spread
When the last leaf falls to winter’s tread
The Grand Worm makes the hill its home
In the dim days of the midwinter moon
He will not end the blighted gloom
Shadowy figures will turn to see
That the worm still holds the key
Into sunlit doom
Nine cities lost to a flood
They searched the forest
And a thousand hills for blood
The Grand Worm crawled out of the hillside mud
And started to Dream
“One thousand years”
A white worm said
At dawn this world will surely end
In the last hours of Yule’s dawn
Have their final breath drawn
Until the world itself is gone.