THE QUEEN OF AIR AND DARKNESS

The Queen of Air and Darkness
cast black eyes to the floor
when the singer made his harp
into a golden door;

for through the door into her
realm of shadow came
the green leaves and the dome of sky,
and still they looked the same.

The Queen of Air and Darkness
fancied that her feet
once more touched the soft green grass,
she smelled the flowers sweet.

She heard the wailings of the damned,
the silence of the dead
give way to murmurs of delight,
and so she turned and said:

“This harper will undo us all,
my liege, grant his request
or see this mighty kingdom fall.”
But burning in her breast

lay loss and longing, and the shame
of her own story sung:
the sudden rapture of the dark
and three seeds swallowed, stung.

The frozen storm beside her
raised up his leaden hand:
“Take that you’ve come for, harper,
back to the living land.”

But kings and gods capricious are.
He under divine breath
added an indecision clause,

hence Mankind’s war on Death.

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