The Plague Worm

Commissioned work from the poem: The Hashish-Eater by Clark Ashton Smith.

Then I reach a room where caryatides,
Carven in the form of tall, voluptous Titan women,
Surround a throne of flowering ebony
Where creep a vine of crystal. On the throne,
There lolls a wan, enormous Worm, whose bulk,
Tumid with the rottenness of kings,
Oθrflows its arms with fold on creasθd fold
Of fat obscenely bloating. Open-mouthed
He leans, and from his throat a score of tongues,
Depending like to wreaths of torpid vipers,
Drivel with phosphorescent slime, that runs
Down all his lenght of soft and monstrous folds,
And creeping among the flow`rs of ebony,
Lends them the Life of tiny serpents. Now,
Ere the Horror ope those red and lashless slits
Of Eyes that draw the gnat and midge...