PICTURESQUE POETICS

A barrow in open country,

A statue with a hungry grin,

Forgotten both and both alone

Till one without came down within.

 

A curious youth came searching,

He found the door and the stairs,

He found the statue imploring:

'Come closer, fate bids us begin.'

 

He placed his hand upon the stone,

Her fire found his bones,

All his mortals years disowned,

Her fire fused their souls;

All they were turned to her goal.

 

Full five hundred years they burned,

Earth containing dreadful screams

As bit by bit the boy was turned

Through pain and fire, more to her.

 

Till flesh and fire were woven,

Till pain grew tedious and old;

Till all her power he'd earned,

Till his strange conscience too she'd learned;

And time came too for their return.

 

From stone to bones, never alone,

Nevermore alone.

Now came the toothsome wars for home

Now both had paid time's toll;

As one flame, they left their knoll.

 

From home stole, through torment honed,

There was no time for woe,

Now to rise and make their own

The world beyond their hole,

Lest see it swallowed whole.

 

Over all they saw they swept, unrelenting.

For all life's sake they conquered, un-repenting.

 

He placed his hand upon the stone

Her fire found his bones,

His heart becalmed her own,

Each nature served to twist and mould,

Each reborn to serve Fate's role.