LAKE 

I see Him through the veiled light.
He watches me, as I hope to catch sight
of your departing wreck.
The wake of your hatred shall soon
roll in, its seething ripples
to fret the dead fringes of this 
vast, murky mirror.

My breath stopped short with my first 
glimpse of you. Your gaze cleaved the air,
left me with first wind half-drawn, 
condemned to live with bated
breath, life denying life, He,
your ever faithful sentinel.

By leafless trees I sit on a pebbled shore,
memories of their fruit I never tasted
linger on my forlorn tongue.

This water was doomed never to stir to
life. Even the moon spurns her pallid
reflection in its colourless depths.

Jagged stones mirror the flint in your 
eyes, deride my fate, their sisters
chanting their siren song from
the lake bed.

"The swans are gone, girl, their mystical
death-songs merely foam on the Styx.
Mingle your life blood with ours!"

"Fear not our brother's scythe, for your
heart was bequeathed him ere you
departed your saline refuge."

"Could even Angels redeem the spawn
of spiritless blackness, of bleak, sunless
days and starless nights?"

I gaze into frozen spaces time forsook.
Polaris turned from me, as you did. This
suspended voyage I do not lament,
merely our mutilated spirits.

Still, I await one last glimpse of your
wrecked vessel. Smiling, He grants me,
this unwitting trespasser, leave to bide
a while longer on the shores of His lake
....leave He denied you, mother.

© 2014 Lily's Verse

Lilium Candidum

Image source: www.pinterest.com
Artist: John Atkinson Grimshaw