Romance
I saw a smiling maiden pass
by a pool in the deepest wood.
Until the night came darkly down
in thought of her I stood.
I came each evening to the pool
though never a word she said,
for I knew that she would come to me
when the moon rose full and red.
Slowly the moon grew in the nights
and slow were the days, and long.
And by the dark pool my heart would shake
for fear of the ~water's song.
And as I stood by the twilit pool,
she said, "Now I am thine;
I bring thee as a testament
a glass of blood-red wine.
The wine lay seven years in earth
under homed moon grown old."
I drank the wine in the double light
and my heart's blood ran cold.
The falcon's wing swept overhead,
it swept before the light;
darker than darkness deep came down,
and ended day and night.
And now I neither live nor die,
am lost to Heaven and Hell;
in the field of blood-red flowers I lie
where a time ago I fell.
copyright © 1998 Gordon Fitch