Absinthia Taetra

Green changed to white, emerald to opal: nothing was changed

The man let the water trickle gently into his glass, and as the green clouded, a mist fell from his mind

Then he drank opaline

Memories and terrors beset him, the past tore after him like a panther

And through the blackness of the present he saw the luminous tiger eyes of the things to be

But he drank opaline

And that obscure night of the soul, and the valley of humiliation, through which he stumbled, were forgotten

He saw blue vistas of undiscovered countries, high prospects and a quiet, caressing sea

The past shed its perfume over him to-day held his hand as if it were a little child

And to-morrow shone like a white star; nothing was changed

He drank opaline

The man had known the obscure night of the soul, and lay even now in the valley of humiliation;

And the tiger menace of the things to be was red in the skies, ut for a little while he had forgotten

Green changed to white, emerald to opal;

Nothing was changed