Our Pilgrim stands before the Maiden's shrine
in silence til the sun is low within
the Sky, and missing something from its edge
as though a bite's been taken from its disk.
Without him ever closing lid o'er eye
his porc'lain flame recedes t'a dormant state,
and so Pariah takes his hold upon
their form, his gaze upon the effigy
of wood, to which he says these parting words:
"I've sullied paradise and by extent 10
destroy'd the hope my counterpart once held
to bring thee to a land less cruel than
the one I left upon thy final breath.
I'm sorry even now I've failed thee.
Perhaps I don't deserve such niceties
as love and fam'ly or community.
Perhaps my broken promise to the moon
was all I had to hold that couldn't be
so taken from my grasp as ev'ry else;
the single thing I had control to keep. 20
But foolishly I thought I had attain'd
a permanent solution to my pain,
not understanding how alike it was
to fleeting mirth I once possess'd with thee
before our separation by the hand
of villainy, as once again's occurr'd."
He clenches his demonic hand against
his side ere turning round, returning to
the house and up the stairs and on toward
the bath, whereat, without the water drain'd, 30
he reaches in and soaks his sleeves with blood
gone cold to lift his Spouse out from the tub
and carry her toward the bedroom, where—
upon the lighting of the candles round—
he dries her skin and garbs her in a dress
as black as night except the single light
upon her bosom, shining in the dark.
He lays her down, arranging out her hair
as evenly as possible; her hands
are laced upon her stomach 'neath the light 40
that represents her star within the Sky.
And when she rests as tranquilly as she
hath ever rested ere, he sets a flame
upon the curtains over th'window pane
and round the edges of the blankets she
now lies upon before he places down
the candle once again upon the stand.
He reaches for the bundle fill'd with ash
and holding it in right, he leaves the house
to dig a hole between the poplar trees 50
YOU ARE READING
As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War
PoetryA troubled Pilgrim sets upon a road in search by sun and storm of paradise; a vain Pariah's banish'd from his home to render justice by the moonlit night: two individuals who share a flesh, each unalike in methods and beliefs, yet fated consequence...
