Intro

I yawn and I lazily think the hours away,

As the soft dust through the beam of light makes its way

And oh, how each particle, in its passing, alone,

Quivers delightfully, a world all on its own.

But I know of a place, it stands ancient and bold,

Where even the silver dust falls in crystals so cold

A land where time’s wings barely flutter at all,

Where enchantment lies hidden behind each towering stone wall.

So let me be embraced by my storyteller’s cloak

And light up the bonfires, utter a praise to the smoke,

That reaches with fingers, ghosts in mourning garments,

To the beings who live in stars, and their celestial laments.

I) Our chariot, metallic, grand, flew swiftly behind unseen horses,

   We rode over fields in winter decor, under a sun that no longer scorches

   But the light is sweet and welcome as its kisses breathe us life,

   A tenderness that throughout the ages, the sun showed to the sky, his wife.

II) We hadn’t left the road, eternal, when the scenery started to change,

    As the purgatory between the worlds drenched us in a gloom so strange

    The mist gripped at my throat, clawing at each passing breath,

    Until the boundaries fell, crumbling, and we wandered off the human path.

III) The seconds burn as they evade me, passing by my drenched throat,

     Space entangled, time disheveled, flowing no more like a moat

     And then, a knight of fog and dust, a rogue across the land,

     Followed us on his mighty steed, a heavy sword in hand.

IV) I blink and the agony slips away, along with the immortal knight,

    I rise, awakened from my dream, rescued from the blight  

    And in the sun that shines anew, a memory’s whispered core,

    Still lingers in the drops of dew – our home – but nothing more.

V) And in this land of Tolkien glow, above the crown of Isengard,

   We raced the wind on ivory snow, enraptured as a bard

   And blizzards wild, of childish joy, did billow in our wake,

   As we rode the mountain’s beard, watching it in ripples shake.

VI) The skier knows that winter’s glory awaits, but never shy,

    She sings and pleads, an avalanche, to our ears just a sigh

    Until you come and claim her, on your blades that thrust through ice,

    And she takes you to the summit of an everlasting vice.

VII) The dark, cold velvet, on my fever-stricken skin,

     Enhances the sensation, remembrance of the purest sin

     And the ecstasy we share every time the sleigh dives down,

     And the thrill of being hugged by the Ice Queen’s tender gown.

VIII) I lay on my back, my soul one with the Fae,

      They come out at night too, under the Moon’s healing ray

      I take one by the hand, but it could have been a wolf’s paw,

      He lifts me to the stars, and they shine to my heart’s law.

IX) All night the crescent moon spreads its beam like a bed,

    Which I hugged until the sky cried drops of fiery red

    I drifted back to earth and the night waved me “Goodbye!”

    Since the need to depart I could no longer deny.

X) Gold trumpets hailed us down the road, through the mist and further

   Sleep gripped me once again through the last hours’ murder

   Sweet music, tender vibrations, trembling in their epic flow

   Lingers on my inner cords, dream-inducing, light as snow.

Epilogue

With my tears that fall like pearls on the withering fire,

My story ends, it lays unfurled, in sweet memory’s attire

And when I cry, fear not, my young ones, I do not cry in pain,

I cry with joy for what once was, before time’s curse was lain.

In ashes the storyteller gazes and smiles for heavens high,

Searching in the fading darkness, a friend, to meet her eye

And from bonfires scattered far, a choir of souls arise,

As friends unite under the same tale, under eternal childhood ties.