Disclaimer: Middle Earth and its denizens are Tolkien's, not mine.



(This collection of seven related sonnets (in a very loose meter) is based on episodes in the Silmarillion.)



Fire Dance



I start in shock when I first spy

Crouching, vulpine, beneath the trees

Tense form obscured by verdant leaves â€"

You devour me with your eyes.

Your famished gaze reveals your kin:

Mortal flesh, too soon to rot.

Unlike my own, which withers not â€"

Eternal form binds soul within.

Despite the gulf between our fate,

Awakened by your ardor dire

An answering hunger, a kindling fire

Possesses me; I flee too late.

Consumed at last by love, I yield to your advance;

Our souls, enmeshed eternally, in death shall ever dance.