Bardic Arts

For Jade's Stepping Down

by
Siobhán ní hEodhusa
Twelfth Night (January), 2000 (AS XXXIV)

Not for this king the brief, the safe, the small
The moment’s glance from which the eye might slide
No, he must seize that eye, command its thrall;
His gestures are writ large. And if he bide
But briefly, it is as a meteor
A searing word across the page of night
They have not found it stinting, heretofor
Who wished upon that star in all its might;
Its glory wanes, their eyes now scan ahead –
One gaze rests yet upon it, all the same,
Her final wish, said as the first was said:
Her gestures, although small, her words – a flame
Of candlelight against a tempest’s blast –
That these find favor with him, to the last.

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).