Her Domain

© 2002 Wade Lipham
All rights reserved.

The trees surround her
Like gnarled staves
Held by the earthen
Hands of the dark
Fields.

The wind blows like
A sword's blade and
Cuts through the warmth
Of my furs, my flesh
Becoming frigid.

We have felt it all
Before, the ice
That hangs upon our
Beards like the rotten
Fruit of a dying tree.

The horses whinny and
Their breath turns to
Clouds before their nostrils;
Their hooves beat the rough
Trail with regular sound.

Pointless is resistance
To the darkness and clouds.
We disembark from the ride
And step into her.
Swallowed as a figure is
By blackness.

The castle is her own domain
And she stands like a ghost
In the candle light. Her words
are whispers, but I can
Hear them as though they were
The town crier's shouts.

Those who rode with me
Seeking the truth as I have
For so long, have found nothing
But darkness. They see her not.

Her face glows and her words
Pierce my heart like arrows.
I have heard them before and yet
They are as new as when she first
Spoke. I fear her.

She reaches out past the candles
And into the shadows which are
Both my and her house,
Which we haved lived in for an
Eternity
Her fingers touching me.
Her voice in my
Ears is so soft, so musical, such
A sweet and melancholy melody.

Her voice is so close to me.
My own pulse becomes a
Symphony of darkness, and she
Becomes one with the music.

Shake, quaver, tremble
Though I may, she is with me
Now, and never shall our
Pair be separated again.

She has become my shadow and
I hers. The darkness is our home
And this morbid masonry our
Ring of imprisonment.

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