The Serpent's Feast

 
A ghost---black.
A boy---of coal.
A dweller---of hell.
The three ungentlemen above are one and the same.
His work: hurling coal into fire, or stoking fire in coal.


Instead of this?
Every job in the world has an instead-of-this.
Yes, this man of ours has one too.
He burns blood and saves the bones.
He thinks he's feeding coal to the furnace.
He doesn't know he became coal long ago.


Who is he? Looks like a human being.
Name? He has no name. Those poorer than the poor have no names.