Hidden in coiled ivy throngs
betwixt the hanging greens
a veil of a thousand days
overgrown from root to leaf
and back again
conceals a magic conclave fitted within its drape.
Parted as you can
with ghoulish fingers
golden is the spearing sun
finding passage ever deeper
reaching toward the beating heart.
Pulsing wings their lace hewn structures
undulate the stifled air.
Not placed in burden
by an infantryman's mistake
sounds the steady drone of a lamenting army.
Rather before them
nigh the mighty throng
placed atop a thorny perch
the name of roses
clutches his ephemerality
aware that fate jests as cruel as night.
There he sits.
The one. The king.
Flushed cheek upon the wrist.
What now are we to do
when the vessel filled this day runs dry?
A hollow carving
that haunts both men and myth
as loss to sorrow begets.
This the moon
in full eclipse
obscures the warmth of an otherwise unbowed heart.
Even a fairy is not to bear
amongst the leafy growth
his blood line gone -
the moon, the flower -
someplace away from here
where the fairer is but a dream.
She like the dawn
a light upon the brow of every spirited figure
gathered great in this rooted hall
rides the day's carriage.
Hope as life the river gives.
Her smile it sparks the blackened furnaces.
And when the daughter has not returned
what then?
A rock falling endlessly
through the void
escapes its watery grave.
A maw at least in which to settle
even if not to breathe.
The scouts still gone
shy a fortnight's darkened closing
bodes the coiling
of a serpent's constriction
flicking tongue silent
the taste of death perhaps scent upon the wind.
But no foulness shall penetrate
the sacred ground.
Male and female alike await
as the pollen does
only strong the insect's touch
that strings across an empty space
to bring continuity from one flower to the next
and with it life once more.
She shall return
a hive's mind thinks but does not say
for to break the quiet speculation
would mean as much this already hex.
Warriors as some this peaceful army sits.
Her soul shall fight
like body and mind
on lofted dreams
carrying her safe to passage
home, home again.