Jon Stocks
Solstice Eve
When half the world was wildwood
As wolves howled in Wolvescote dale
And naked virgins prayed to Orion,
The village shaman sat, in awed silence
Watching Swifts and Swallows, hushed,
Lost in deep chasms of thought,
Lonely, intuitive and afraid.
He saw how times could merge
Like seas slipping into oceans,
How distant worlds of ice and fire
Would tumble from the sky,
And torches would melt in the moonlight.
He saw men scramble into holes
For lead like fossilized mother's milk,
A last, loveless bear stumble into oblivion
And wolves disappear into maps.
And he saw mankind plunge into darkness,
Vision blurred by conscious thought,
Dreams buried, strangled at birth,
And the moon-muse turned to dust.
Page(s) 38
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