Thursday, 29 June 2017

Green Valley 2: 6 Alone

3
Where are the guests of yesteryear
Brought by starlight and bright hope ?
They stand amazed at how a feral child,
And protective pack, order all,
Keep hired men in service, dealing fair,
Ensuring that tomorrow comes,
But they stand back from her glance,
And stay away and dare not enter in.
One eye on horizon clapped,
And other on the land.
She deals herself the harshest hands,
Longest days, mind and hands occupied,
Not thinking of what tomorrow brings,
But only of getting there with no further hurt
Blessed sleep brings no relief,
She wanders wide awake in dreams,
In unanchored landscape with no form,
No myths to bind it to her will,
No visitors from other worlds intrude,
Offering advice in rhyme
Hand written on machine milled paper.
The only constant is warm wet fur,
As the dogs curl up and comfort.
She wakes and screams for brothers,
Husband to be, or even lovers,
But no one comes. The Ravens are a clique,
And just observe, she’s given up asking even them.
She knows the path of season and of growth..
Her barns are full, and money comes,
But for what purpose she is unsure.
Ardent Wolf will return, she’s sure,
But never as to when, and she still
Has not dared to enter in
The chamber of the former King.
She cannot bare the thought he is not in.
In the dog days, when stubble burns,
And the harvest is most firmly in,
One day one snowflake drops out of the sky,
Like a slingshot from a heart’s assassin,
And lands on our child’s brow.
With it thoughts arrive
A picture of a cool cold land,
Right here, but perhaps from long ago,
And behind her weary eyes
A voice writes words that sooth.
Sister, forgive me not for sending sooner,
Ardent is gone to seek his brother,
He has learned of some old doors
That may help this or that old cause
and maybe gone sometime.
Alacrity, and here she recalled she had a name,
Not elf child, witch, strange one, queen Mab,
Felt a fellow sadness in the voice
I cannot come to see thee, I bring
The ice in footsteps and we two,
Maybe one, but hold a balance.
I keep things as they are, to freeze and to protect,
And you, my blessed one,
Are the cradle of the world.
My ice would kill what you would grow,
And in despair, as I see you are,
You would welcome that,
And that I will not permit.
Amidst the stubble smoke,
Charred fields and noonday knives,
A child relaxed a bit,
And felt a mind wander into kindness,
Fellow feeling and other things,
That has not been felt a while.
A trouble shared is a goodly gift,
Two voices said as one,
And, in polar opposites,
Two hands touched faces and their hair,
Wondering when last they’d washed and preened
Between us we can hold the earth,
From polar caps, to valley green,
Between us we can bridge the worlds,
Between us we can find the boys and men,
Who have walked from our land to another.
There are poets to ask, invite him in.
And while these thought emerged,
She found her feet had taken her
To where a willow o’er hung a pool,
where once a letter hung,
where now, losing clothes as chrysalis of pain,
she slid into the dark and lilied pond,
To say that wriggled toes in pond weed,
And chubb and rudd between ones hands
Were the most delightful things for way too long
Hardly needs more detail
As your mind now fills in the gaps,
And our imagined pleasures are
The equivalent of hers
A slow stroke to the other side,
And back again, scattering midges,
Eyes tight against the sunrays
Bouncing off her bow-wave and wake.
She knows she could find them if she tried,
But there is still beauty, though men may die,
And death does not kill it all.
She dried herself, most boldy,
By simply lieing in the sun,
and , on seeing her old clothes,
The browns of enforced duty and of pain,
Wrapped herself in white feed sacks,
And sauntered barefoot home
Remembering the corn.
I am the Queen, she thought,
And I have mourned,
But now I play
and my fiancee must be wooed again.
She trailed ivy in her hair once more,
And ,when home, oped all the windows
In all the rooms, wrote notes to all she knew
Inviting them for a summer’s feast,

Listening to the bees.

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