Post by willowdown on Jan 5, 2009 3:26:34 GMT -5
Do you remember
one far off September
we parted in tears
as sad-visaged years
jostled and jeered,
waiting to rush in between us
as the Summer Stars peered
at threatening, overdue Winter...
Now as I wander the lone ragged days
of Albion's ruin and Cathay's decline
I cherish the dawn and the shadows
of twilight that mind to me
other joyful nights and mornings
and your lips on mine.
Neither sunlight, rain or frost
can tarnish the many-coloured coat
or rose-petaled memories
in Love's magic land.
Daughter of wonders,
heart's feminine twin,
I follow your footsteps in my dreams,
under the roots of dark mountains,
beside silent mercurial streams
where broken, jewelled fountains
cast grotesque shadow
over a sickly moonlit sward
and the eyes of animals are dim
and I have no words to call you,
nor is there wind to carry my sighs
nor living water anywhere
save the dull and sluggish metallic sea
slowly corroding the ancient coastline
of old, powdered coral and the
cinders and ash of fallen stars,
dust that has gathered from near and far,
the dust of our love, neglected and poor
- mute beggarly love, tired and sore,
re-treading ancient footprints
from empty door to empty door.
I have no lantern,
there are no stars worthy of the name
and the eyes of Night's albino owls
give out no light but only contain pain
as birds once emblematic of Wisdom
contend with each other over loathsome, pallid maggots
bloated with dead angels gore,
the blood and marrow of fallen divinities
whose fragile bones add their powdered remains
to the final crepuscular shore.
Dim phosphorescence flickers and fades
on the grey and leaden sea,
nothing stirs, nothing moves,
the shadows of ravens nest broken
in the corpse of a tree
hung with diminutive skulls that follow me
with empty eyes, that call to me
with grinning, fleshless mouths
'We have seen her, we have seen her!',
tittering unholy mockery...
With the bitter kiss of day upon my soul
I am weary, I am not whole
and the locket of sorrow I wear at my throat,
the ring of gold laughter I wear on my hand
remind to me the memories
of rose-petaled days in Love's magic land
as I continue my fretful journey
along the dull sand.