LORELEI - TIME AND THE SONGWRITER

Saturn rising,
And she sings alone, lovelorn Lorelei;
Ringing her voice to the far corners
Lofty with ceilings of stars;
Pouring out her aeons of soul across the cosmic wasteland
As words glitter like beads among the worlds.

Saturn, ringed, rises,
And she sings his dawn
Down to the last petal of her lyric.
Blindnesses of myriad eyes sleep on,
Star-heedless of her calling,
'Till the vast wheel turns the dusted wind to pale her cheek
With patterns of futility.

Saturn risen in rings,
And Time's bride fades in his fathomless shadow,
Scything her braid-black hair
To weave a mantle for his sun,
To shield her bloom from the hurt of his burning. This much
Is worth one smile from his hoard of gold: this much
Her craving for his mindfulness.

Saturn risen. Ringed
In the teeming void and wasting her words.
Minds meet in the mantra of her chanting; meet,
Pass on, and find no oneness with her harmony.
Yearnings deeper than space
Etch their world-lines on her lyre-worn hand,
Drawing out her years of failed trying.

Saturn, wringing
The last echo from her pristine melody,
Strains her fretted eloquence through his mesh of worlds.
Syllables melt like snowflakes keening the curve of his blades;
He hears her solitary sorrowing
And winnows her life on his moonward winds.

Saturn, ringing
The black knell of Time around her withering breast ......
Blue inks to violet in the red curse of suns
As all night's days go spinning by.
Desire dies dreaming in her distant eyes -
Where is the ear to hear
And where that kindred voice to complement her soul?
- - See how her song lies slain in the epic dust
- - As her bitter tears dash out each word of it.