The sky grins cerulean sweeping violet,
And a wall of amber sapphire tufts
Rolls silently parallel to my purpose.
My mount neighs hotly as I rein
His vicariously passionate ride
To a contemplative canter beneath the
Silver white aura of mist-veiled moonlight.
About my eccentric path green arms salute
My passing with tender welcome sways,
And on the horizon my destination
Rises in grey black silhouettes of
Stony monolithes housing my destination.
Above me mist and dark clouds threaten
My clear heavens so integral in my dream,
And I wonder if ever my wish of four long
Eternities in struggle will be appeased;
I but crave the starshine and nothing more.
As the stacked stone walls of the manor rear
Guardingly before my presence I again
Ache as I had the day in our Garden, the day
Of our wistful bitter maddened goodbye.
As I pass determined through the lion gates,
The wind roars the growls of the hounds to me.
I smile, remembering the years playing with those hounds,
And as I hoped, soon their identifying tongues
Come seeking my gauntleted hands.
Dismounting, I offer them gifts of mutton secured
Supposing that my long absence had dulled fond memory.
Clapping of hoof on stone receeds into the night
As my mount wanders forth for satiation,
And I round the barrier of stone before me
To find her window dimly radiant
From some wispy bedside flame.
From within my waistbound pouch I
Draw forth stones from once-French soil
To work my melancholy bidding this eve.
My first tossed attempts bring no response, then
Through familiar lips and foggy glass
“Fool,†whisper-hisses back to me together with the
Stony heralds used to carry my greetings to her window.
I tremble; it has been so long, and she so missed.
“Come down!†I call, warily feeling my dark
Surroundings for the ravings of the manor’s lord.
Glancing up I realize she is no where to be found,
And somewhere in the grumblings of my heart
I question my foolishness at returning from war
And expecting everything to be the same
As when I had so disruptingly said goodbye,
And I turn away to mask my sad retreat in the night.
But as I droop within I feel the cool breeze
Of the mountains sweep my thoughts upward
Toward the darting moon and flickering stars,
All dreamily hazy from mist and cold.
I smile bitterly at my romanticism awry
'Til my hand slips to hilt, sensing the approaching
Form before my wistful churning thoughts
Allow some surcease and recognition.
With a pivot I face her eyes and ponder
Timidly my next course of blunder.
"I have returned..." I mutter too imperiously,
Adding voicelessly, humbly, "To You!"
But she knows...
Withdrawing from the portal's shadow
She emerges into the glow of a forthright moon
Drifting musingly through a paradise of stars.
One white-shine crystalline droplet dews
And caresses her cheek pensively, pausing once
In its rapt dilineation of her lines for the
Tender ebon rise beneath her piercing eye.
Within, I question the ache and anguish which upon her
I have visited with my incautious emulation of Ares.
But outwardly I can only stare in dumb disbelief.
For regardless of the Past I am here as is she.
And e'en if this is but a momentary Heaven,
For a long awaited, half-disbelieved Present
Once more have I been blessed to behold my love...
Laryssa in starlight.
