(One thing you need to understand about this poem is that Loki, at least in the moment, thinks he dying, in this 'verse.
. . .
Recommended soundtrack: Deliverance from The Dark World and Odin Confesses from Thor.)
'I will tell Father you died with honour.'
'...I didn't do it for him.'
But once had Odin said to me,
'We are not gods.' I laughed inside
and vowed that I would never die.
(The mortals call it irony.)
. . .
The pulsing flame beneath my ribs
is guttering like the candles' fate
that Mother sealed with a kiss.
I threw my life away for this.
. . .
A blasted Sun sweeps withered stone,
but Thor is warmer over me;
his heartbeat echoes in the World Tree,
above my bursting, blistered bones.
. . .
A golden afterimage burns
behind my eyes and through my skin,
and I am ashes in the wind,
dissolving as the worlds turn.
. . .
His eyes catch me as all light flies,
blue as Asgard's endless height
where two boys ran through the falling light,
As happy as the golden sky.
. . .
As reckless as the falling leaves,
we thought that glory's golden daze
would never burn to ashen days.
The sons of kings stood tall as trees.
. . .
And I remember flitting through
the twilight wood, and Thor always
a step behind his runaway.
I wish that he had caught me, now.
. . .
If he had reached me then and told
me all the truth he could not know,
would my brother still have let me go?
But I drowned first in seas of gold.
. . .
His hand alone reached to out me;
wis voice alone told me Come back!,
and all the hurt I gave, he took.
I'm falling toward eternity,
. . .
A thousand miles from where we stood;
but he smiles because I proved him right,
and died for love and died for light
that echoes in the twilight wood.
This is our horribly belated birthday gift for the great and magnanimous CrackingAndProudOfIt, a faithful friend, excellent authoress, brilliant beta, and considerate correspondent! Happy Birthday, Crackers!
(We hope you don't mind the liberties Celt took with the rhyme-scheme and meter. Loki's dying: he's allowed some inconsistencies. ...at least, that made sense in Celt's head.)
-RandomCelt and DarthMihi, all-important editor and critic.