Marie knew'st best the wont of blood and gold --
Heedless be not or headless be thy trim;
How thin a strand to bind the downtrod bold
Is law's decree?  It quivers at their whim,
Like dusted snow that grey's the mountain's locks,
Each flake unseen, a pauper, cold and damp,
Wherein the voice of scorn, the hand that mocks,
May shove these brothers down steep mountain ramp
And each to each must cling and garner speed
As sisters, mothers, fathers, join the throng,
Their flags unfurled, their voices raised in song,
Onwards unto one prophecy, one deed --
    Marie knew'st best the wont of blood and gold;
    The time is nigh her tale shall be re-told.

Distangle fangle from the yore
To ken the roots of yon afore
And see whereof they tread

A roguish minstrel, cowlish clad,
With spritish garb, a-prancin’ mad,
Bridged east the river bed

He came a prancin’ oh did he,
As like the wind with a fiddle-dee-dee,
As like as like a clown

He waltzed and hopped and twirled about
Whilst passing through the old redoubt
Unto the midst of town

Children flocked to hark his air
Resounding from the market square
Pervading every nook

They waltzed and hopped and twirled about
From all around the old redoubt
To chance a better look

He shimmied left, he darted right,
And marveled at the wondrous sight
As wee ones danced along

He raised his pipe, began to play,
And all about began to sway
Enchanted by his song

“Come hey, come hence, come fiddle-dee-dee!”
His call was as the roiling sea
That pilfers from the dunes

Now with his ducklings all-in-tow,
He swift bridged west the river’s flow
Beguiling with his tunes

Applied the minstrel to his pipe
And nary tot nor guttersnipe
Were wont to be unled

The wee ones went unto his tune
That vexed the waning heart of June
And to the mountain fed

And all of them are dead

Oh sleeping beauty, whence thine prince
To kiss thee from thy sodden dreams?
One hundred years and two score since
Thy last farewell -- Who now redeems
This world awash for loss of thee?
Who now shall stand thine shining knight
To guard thee for eternity
And bring thee safe to heaven's height?

Oh sleep well beauty, flaxen maid,
With lavender laced in thine hair,
No earthly sin to be repaid,
Awash with frailty, love and prayer --
Oh sleep well beauty, pure and chaste,
Undying maiden, casket lass,
And watch the world pass by in haste
As thou do rest beneath thy glass.

I look for truth amongst the dust
And debris of an erstwhile time,
When life had hope, as all life must
Before it meets an end in crime;
A seed was sown, a scene was set,
And time was apt to soon forget

The rain that fell to cleanse the blood,
Perchance from angels weepy-eyed,
Caressed the concrete and the mud,
Destructive as a rising tide;
What once lay here now rests but there,
Some things that were now are nowhere

And to this chaos, casts my eye,
To see the dust and debris strewn;
I look to where the bodies lie
Like shadows cast beneath the moon;
What did the hour of time perceive?
Would that I could traverse its weave

And follow thence unto a strand
That holds within the truth I seek,
And with enlightenment in hand
Then of that truth I'd gladly speak,
But I am mute, for all I see
Is washed-out dust and cleansed debris

Oh,

We forgot.

Again.

Would that a recollection could expire;
Not in the fuzzled hedgerows of old age,
But here amidst the furrows of a sage
And active mind -- A rustle of attire;
A scent, familiar, quickening desire;
A voice as soft as silence on a stage --
Unbundled straws like kindling to the page
That sets this enigmatic heart afire --
Would that I could entreat vacuity
To bar a thought, to keep it squarely shuttered,
Preventing it from creeping back inside --
The vacant plots might cleanse my memory,
Might numb an ache and leave a mind uncluttered --
The healing of a vast unfeeling void.