hello! i'm allie, aka oflights. i write fanfic!

good to know:

Hades Welcomes His Bride

Come now, child, adjust your eyes, for sight Is here a lesser sense. Here you must learn Directions through your fingertips and feet And map them in your mind. I think some shapes Will gradually appear. The pale things twisting Overhead are mostly roots, although some worms Arrive here clinging to their dead. Turn here. Ah. And in this hall will sit our thrones, And here you shall be queen, my dear, the queen Of all men ever to be born. No smile? Well, some solemnity befits a queen. These thrones I have commissioned to be made Are unlike any you imagined; they glow Of deep-black diamonds and lead, subtler And in better taste than gold, as will suit Your timid beauty and pale throat. Come now, Down these winding stairs, the air more still And dry and easier to breathe. Here is a room For your diversions. Here I’ve set a loom And silk unraveled from the finest shrouds And dyed the richest, rarest shades of black. Such pictures you shall weave! Such tapestries! For you I chose those three thin shadows3 there, And they shall be your friends and loyal maids, And do not fear from them such gossiping As servants usually are wont. They have Not mouth nor eyes and cannot thus speak ill Of you. Come, come. This is the greatest room; I had it specially made after great thought So you would feel at home. I had the ceiling Painted to recall some evening sky— But without the garish stars and lurid moon. What? That stark shape crouching in the corner? Sweet, that is to be our bed. Our bed. Ah! Your hand is trembling! I fear There is, as yet, too much pulse in it.

A.E. Stallings

thank you so much! ❤️

Horses at Midnight Without a Moon

Our heart wanders lost in the dark woods. Our dream wrestles in the castle of doubt. But there's music in us. Hope is pushed down but the angel flies up again taking us with her. The summer mornings begin inch by inch while we sleep, and walk with us later as long-legged beauty through the dirty streets. It is no surprise that danger and suffering surround us. What astonishes is the singing. We know the horses are there in the dark meadow because we can smell them, can hear them breathing. Our spirit persists like a man struggling through the frozen valley who suddenly smells flowers and realizes the snow is melting out of sight on top of the mountain, knows that spring has begun.

Jack Gilbert