Manticore

A lion seems enough

To threaten in anger, red

With a scorpion tail::

But beasts of darkness

Rarely have human faces

With multiple teeth

So whence comes this one

From our deepest memories,

From the nightmare past?

Is this an image

Of ourselves retrieved from scraps 

Of hard-fought insight,

Or stemming from dreams,

Profound reflections,or

Light before new hope?

Down in the circles

Peering in the swirling night,

We can't resolve it.