For Anna.

Summerland Lady

I know not why I pray to you
Heart of ice and eyes so true
Flay me, darling, to my core
Your lips, your arms, an open door

You breath is cold against my skin
Who cares for such trivial things?
Send me smiling to my grave
And you to yours, lest we be saved

I could but keep you in my heart
If those we love tore us apart
They cannot, will not understand
Seeing through your Summerland

A heaven you would pledge to me
In exchange for what must be
Fear not my passing from this life
What can it hurt to kill me twice?

Memory will outlive pain
And souls return to thence reclaim
Judgment and forgiving grace
All at once and in one face

A lover's levy will repay
The damage of all those yesterdays
And if we must spell the end for some
Why fight what cannot be undone?

I never did regret my crimes
The clouds that hang on blinded eyes
This honour, love and tragedy
Nought but further heresy

In the end we are all lost
And I will always bear your cross
But when of your long life bereft
What dreams, my love, will you have left?

END

Heh…yeah….the narrator is Lord Zaon, and the poem makes use of the primarily Wiccan notion of a resting place in the afterlife, Summerland, which I won't go into depth about incase I get it wrong.

"I don't think you can feel sheer panic continuously. Your mental system breaks down. It comes in waves, and you have to tell yourself, well, this will end. I went back to a leaden misery that was more easily manageable…"

- Anne Rice, 'Blackwood Farm'

Coronis