4. A Poem For Lovers

"I have always known, I think, that I lived before—it seems to me that life is too great a thing to live it only once and then be snuffed out like a lamp when the wind blows.  And why, when I first looked upon your face, did I feel that I had known you before the world was made?  These things are mysteries, and I think it may be that you know more of them that I…But I do not fear the dragons…"  -Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

Desperate measures in desperate times

The medicine man recited

Desperate measures in desperate times

Two star-crossed lovers divided

Back in the days when Apollo shone

His light across the land

And the men of the earth lived and breathed

By the mercy of Zeus' hand

There was a town, neither Athens nor Thebes

Nor Sparta or any of fame

But a small verdant hovel that history has lost

Even I misremember its name

Now this town had fallen on dreadful times

And the shadow of drought had fallen

And the people were hungry and scared for their lives

And a conman heard their calling

"I'm a medicine man," he proclaimed to the town

"And I know how to keep you from famine

Find a girl, a young girl, not just any old thing

Not a child or starving young gamin

But a beautiful virgin in the bright flush of youth

The most innocent one in the town

You must bathe her and feed her and pamper her needs

And then you must strike her down

A sacrifice, that's what the gods do demand!"

He exhorted the town to obey

"You must send them a virgin by the next equinox

And without any further delay"

(That he received gold, wine, and slaves for his words

And for slaying the innocent one

I am sure was coincidence, never the motive

Could such terrible things have been done?)

The virgin was chosen, a maiden named Helen

The most beautiful one within miles

With hair like the sun and eyes like the sea

Who could light up the sky with her smiles

She agreed in a minute, one could not say gladly

But to save her dear beloved home

She would do most anything, that's what she said

As they dressed her in lily-white gown

Then they left her to pray in a chapel with incense

So thick she was soon in a trance

And it's safe to declare that as she knelt there

She never once thought of romance

And then suddenly he came like a god from on high

Destroying the calm tranquil scene

With cornflower hair like the wheat fields in summer

And eyes that were deep emerald green

When he saw Helen there I can honestly swear

That this warrior very near cried

"Helen, love!" he beseeched as he knelt at her feet

"Throw this vow away and be my bride!

Come with me, away, to where we can be safe

And peaceful as dryads and doves

For I cannot sit still and just watch you be killed

For you see, it is you that I love"

Then Helen broke free from the smoke and the drugs

And her sapphire eyes, they did burn

And flow over with tears, for the boy she adored

All the love she bore, he did return

They stole but a kiss, then a second, and third

And giggled like children at play

Forgetting, for now, the threat hanging over

Their heads before sunset that day

Then the medicine man, if he can be called that

Came to check on his young sacrifice

And what did he see but a boy from the streets

Kissing her not once but thrice!

He flew into a rage and he called in the guards

And they dragged the poor young man away

Striking him with their fists for each stolen kiss

For love his town he'd dared to betray

And as for the girl, well, the man was incensed

And sped up the time of the rites

Her death would be now, though she struggled and fought

And got in some sharp lucky bites

Though I speak with a smile, I must pause for a while

For this tale is yet hard to tell

For a town and its fool, without further ado

Slaughtered she the young lad loved so well

As her body rose higher on the funeral pyre

The young man he dropped to the ground

For never again would his heart beat again

For he, too, had been killed by the town

Not with weapons or blows, no, heaven knows

But a heart that had broken with grief

For a love he had known, now the white of a bone

And flakes of ash that blew like leaves

And the gods up above watching this tragic love

Some incensed and some moved to tears

And Zeus in his ire blasted it with fire

And that's how the town disappeared

"These lovers," he declared, "though they cannot be spared

For nothing can restore them to life

Will rise once again until the great day when

Their true other half they may find

Though it take years and years and an ocean of tears

I swear by the skies and the sea

That until side by side, heaven shall be denied

To these lovers true—so mote it be."