Sudden rattle in the chest or dropping of temperature

Reconfigured my life's skeleton, discarded every past intention. 

I put my darling dreams up in the attic,

Bid goodbye to summer, 

Opened the door to greet the plague doctor. 

Who, poking at my scarlet babies, 

Announced that I get my shovel  

And, seeing the dark rope I had prepared 

Held out to me a bouquet of daises, 

A cross… 

Accept or not, fate lay the same: 

A pile of bones on broken bones 

Evicted by some strain of plague. 

Sudden change of key or slowing of pace. 

Then she comes hauling up misery's bleak ranks, 

Crawling up filthy drains like a rat, 

To claim the role of chief connoisseur.  

To the shadowy realm, perched like a gargoyle, 

Over gold and white ceremonies,  

Oizys sits in her veils of blackness. 

Opening the python’s cage,  

Presenting forth the mouse.