Title: The Ruin of Swann and Sea
Rating: PG
Notes: Inspired by Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon poetry in general.
The nightmare bringer lurked near.
She heard nothing, save the clear peal of the bell.
All's well.
Ocean swells
gently toss her, heart and mind.
Candle lit decks sway
The gold taker, gold giver
Heart thief, unreal king
Dark eyed sparrow consumes her mind.
The monster of the deep creeps silently toward them.
She turns, thinking she's heard his voice
Her heart's own true one.
It is but the sea breeze, tricking her.
She closes her eyes,
Away from the rough hewn home she inhabits.
Where has he gone, the steel beater, steel breaker
Winsome winner of her heart?
She is lonely as the sea herself, mindful of the forgotten.
He is at his music maker,
Deaf to all but the sad song of the sea.
He is the sea.
And she? She is his heart's thief.
She, soul of the sea
Heart black as coal.
She, free of her soul's cage,
Roaming on bird's wings,
Haunts him with the pain of a thousand drownings,
A thousand stabs to the core of him.
The quiet one, son of trickery and treachery,
He knows.
He will know.
She, too, is wild and willful as the sea.
Whispers of the songbird and indiscretion
The sea tells him.
The nightmare death of him,
Slow sleep in the deep oblivion,
That will not comfort the quiet one's heart.
He will sink, will fail.
Songbirds cannot be tamed, sea birds less so.
The quiet one will bring steel sword blade
Against the songbird and the sea,
Against deep deceit and in long coming vengeance.
For a moment, he is still, deep resonance replaced
By the heart song of the locket.
This one may be of use yet.