Tammie Doodle was a cantie chiel
Fu' cantie and fu' crouse
The fairy like him unco weel
And built him a wee house
And when the house was all built up
And finished but the door
A fairy it came askipping in
And danced upon the floor
The fairy it whirled up and down
It loupit and it flang
It friskit and it whiskit roun'
And crooned a fairy sang
At length it whistled loud and shrill
And in came all the gang
Till poor little Tammie Doodle
Was most smathered in the thrang
Full balmy and redolent with rose-jasmine spice.
I leant from my window to catch the moonset
When down from the battlement a dark figure leapt.
I retreated right backward, heart in my throat,
Voiceless and frightened for the chamber door I broke.
But something there stopped me, hand on the door,
And I found my feet frozen upon the tiled floor.
Feeling the pull of a mesmerizing stare,
I slowly turned 'round to face what was there.
Shivering and shaking I finally stood
Face to face with the being beneath the dark hood.
A tender sorrow poured from his eyes
And I cried out with the pity I was unable to hide.
Claws sheathed within silken fur, a paw rose up to rest
Upon my bare shoulder, slipped from its nightdress.
Atremble at his gentle touch,
The heat that flowed through my heart was such
That I must reach to touch the near-human face
Despite the fearsome feline trace.
A bond was created that Midsummer night
As I lay with the Beast in the candle's soft light.
Never had I lain with another
And now refuse to have any other.
First they did worry, the people of the Dun,
Saying, "Why will our Lady marry no one?
When tales of her beauty have spread far and wide
And Princes aplenty come begging to her side!"
He comes to me softly in the last hours of night
When the people sleep and the Dun is quiet,
To share love's soul-mated affinity,
Heaven-granted through Eternity.
"Years have come and years have gone,"
Curse the bitter people of the Dun,
"And no heir from the Lady will we ever get
For she sleeps with the Beast in the Midsummer moonset."
Copyright M.S. Elgin 1993
From that first Firefall
Knew that its coming
Meant death for them all.
-
Running before it,
Scrambling for life,
Many were caught,
Flame-frozen to ice.
-
"Beneath! Beneath!"
The Latimers cried.
"Nowhere else can we safely hide,
'Til the Passing shall we bide!"
-
So commenced the Freezing Years,
Burning blue-fire ice
Touched the world with frigid tears
Searing surface life.
-
Long later one was born to them
Whose feet full yearned to tread
Upon the icebound lands Above,
Filling all with dread.
-
"Never ever, Miri Lat!
Do not travel there!
The ways are blocked by Permaicen
The fearsome Blue-Ice Bear!"
-
"The world that lies Above us
Will scorch your wandering feet
And sear away your life's breath
With its frozen heat!"
-
Seeking knowledge we have lost,
For from a dream I know
T'will be worth whatever cost?
-
"We have become complacent
In our underground cocoon,
Lulled by the warmth of inner-earth,
Denying eventual doom.
-
"The Fams they do breed
And the Lats they do flourish
And gone are the growing seeds
On which our children nourish.
-
"They fight amongst the Tunnelways.
In their dwellings they do argue.
And no amount of cautioning
Can warn them for Tomorrow.
-
"The Earlies ran from fire-ice
With Tech-Know in their heads.
Surely, somewhere up Above
The rest waits to be read !"
-
Now from the darkling passages
Up past the Ice Bear's bed
Rose up a fearless Traveler
To go where she was led.
And soaring frost mountains.
Snowflakes adance
In shivering fountains.
-
Deep frozen crevasses
Death in their maws.
Long-toothed Permaicen,
Crystal-sharp claws.
(Under consruction. To be continued.)
Into a great singing well of stars,
Their voices so crystalline pure
That I forgot the chill of ever-cold.
-
An angry planet spun madly on its axis.
It refused to hear the star song
And rushed on its renegade path,
Throbbing hectic color.
-
But I listened to the breath of starlight.
Its radiance created a longing,
Heart-deep and soul-turning,
So rapt I did not hear the Phoenix cry.
So wrapped in his tail I was pulled
With him through the echoing Void.
Streaming, comet-born Avian.
-
Bent on his eternal navigation,
I thought he did not hear my silent plea.
Then shining tail merged with rings
And I was Home.
-
Hurtling down the icy, spiral way,
I finally touched the frozen surface
And slid the floe to its many-layered core
Nearly to my dwelling Beneath.
-
Past the fearsome Permaicen,
Stiffened now in hibernation.
My family welcomes me.
Called Upon the butterflies for shelter.
And they made for him a living canopy,
Curtained with the shinig iridescence
Of a million rainbowed wings.
-
Therein he brought his guest
The Lady Andulasia de Helgyn
And taught her of his joy.
-
The Lady Andu, sore-hearted,
Took comfort from the tenderness of Ahn.
The life-glow once again flowed
From her eyes and hands.
-
She walked in the Forest with her companions
And filled the meadows with her mirth.
Unbidden, the Sylvan Song sprang from her lips,
The birds echoing the melodic refrain
From time out of mind.
Copyright M.S. Elgin 1992
Within the vast Infernal zone
Stands the canny Sentinel
Fully straight and ever still.
-
Descending crescent's falling light
Heralding the end of night,
Shines within the clear, bright eye
Death's dark danger to espy.
-
Behind the sharpened-bone stone hill
Wait the children of the Sentinel,
Ears alert and poised to run
Should the short-barked signal come.
-
At last, all senses satisfied,
The perilous crossing can be tried.
Shadowing the loping stride
The young attain the other side.
-
Nocturnal journeys at an end,
Safe, soft slumber in the den.
The Sentinel now rests his head
Upon the wind-worn Desert bed.
(for Dad)
Copyright M.S. Elgin 1995
Prose
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