As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War

3- ☼☼ ☾☾

The evening sun is resting on the tips

of mountains jagged on th'horizon's brim

which Spouse can see, for she is also high

upon the winding path of this ascent

from Earth below to Sky above which was

directed t'her by clues the village found

depicting Pilgrim's path to be toward

this terrifying peak that now she climbs

alone, for there are cannibals among

the caves and paths of this particular                10

ascent of slopes; yet on she presses still,

regardless of her fears, for Pilgrim needs

her help, or so she hopes, for if it turns

out that he dothn't, that is like to mean

already he's been ended on this peak. . .

Nay, stop—she casts the thought upon the rocks

for never could she come t'imagine harm

befalling him; her heart could not sustain

the damage, so she holds her hope in front

of all her fears to shield from their woes,                20

and presses forward up the dusk-lit face

with apprehensions mounting as she climbs,

as eeriness presides the present scene.

Its silence in the face of certain risk

produces incongruity which shapes

a pit inside her stomach, set to drop. . .

. . .And plunge it doth, her eyes now wide and round

upon the sight of two of them before

a cavern's mouth with spears in each their grips

and muscles lin'd with shade by setting sun                30

below a pair of antler'd helmet skulls.

With urgency before they see her form,

she hides behind a rock to think a plan,

whereat she notices another path

above the one they guard, and silently

she sneaks above their sights and looks around

for something like an option she can take,

for certainly they guard an entryway

toward their tunnels where her Pilgrim's kept.

But as she looks upon the shaded walls                40

of solid rock that seem to end in naught,

she knows she must continue with this cave

below that she hath spotted at their rears

by finding here a way to break their guard.

She searches this plateau on which she stands

of stone and sand and grabs a heavy rock

and holds it at the edge above one's head