And when the boat she landed on that cold and rocky shore,
the travelers went into caves and then were seen no more.
Their children’s children learned to live outside beneath the sun,
but when vague legend met their ears behind the rocks they’d run.
Not sure the shadows of their past would meet them in the night,
they built their walls from loose thrown rocks without concern for height.
The height continued up and up the shadows down and down,
until there was no life at all within their little town.
And traveling off from distant lands the girls, their dogs, a thief,
they found the shadows were their home and bid a fast retreat.
Their children’s children crawled from darkness with their mother’s cloak,
and when a stranger passed them by they neither shone nor spoke.
And when they wandered past the walls upon that distant shore,
the men looked down and said “who’s there” their sabers rattled “war”.
Back into shadows the girls did dwell until they fell asleep,
their closeness was their darkness but there never was a peep.
And to the South lay daughters that dwell amongst their kin,
and while they thought their daughters Love abuse had laid within.
Too scared to show their fury of the treatment they received,
they locked away the thoughts that bayed the feelings they conceived.
And while they lived from day to day at dinner table set,
confined to chambers of their thoughts as forgotten chambers slept.
Their faces all consumed them, the way they combed their hair,
for in the blood that left their souls their were no women there.
While to the East the men did pile and brutish strength did grow,
instead of reaching out for help their weakness kept them low.
As hardened necks found kissless days and sure malnourished nights,
their stony hearts mislead their hands and fears soon led to fights.
Their bumping and their turning in a world they couldn’t see,
for what lay beneath what eyes saw not was a boy upon his knees.
As thought was thought as weakness, and dark befell their homes,
their slights became their vision and left they were, alone.
Where in the distant desert children whipped by harshest wind,
they cursed the Gods and call them hate then hunkered deep within.
The children met the heat with fists they met the cold with rage,
they spit at night they laughed at day rebuking every age.
The cold hot flows escaped them, they missed the birds in flight,
the fish they came the fish they left without a net in sight.
Impoverished by their bitterness lamenting in their need,
no one dared to whisper thoughts that gave the Gods their heed.
And back that seaside fortress a boy had turned to see,
the darkness that befell their land had killed but one last tree.
And so the children took the chance and let the shadows in,
the wall came down just low enough to pass their shadow kin.
The girls appeared beneath their cloak to look for hook and trap,
but when they saw the blight within those fallen walls they wept.
The pass was made and light streamed in to grow that fragile tree,
the girls picked plums and shed their cloaks their sisters South to see.
They traveled in a carnival of long and hilly roads,
and when they reached the Southern steps they begged the girls to go.
The captives’ souls’ lay dormant they knew not what to do,
they had to leave these girls behind, head East, for they were few.
This troop of daughter’s left their fears at base of downed stone wall,
so Eastern men of stony gate left them no dread at all.
The girls they softly touched those the boys, the boys they burned with fear,
but as they wept they held the girls until their need appeared.
The daughters they consoled them - the men they let them love,
and then upon that very eve they prayed the Gods above.
And in forgotten memory of God’s great distance past,
they rode so wild into the winds and met that wind whipped caste.
The caste turned rocks from gods towards man to keep the men at bay,
but all they heard was one small voice and in a hymn it sang.
The voice called out to God above and rose and fell in pitch,
the children of this harshest land sat still within its grip.
The melody made them silent, to watch the world around,
and quick as quiet clear appeared and food so soon was found.
The river in a fortnight would become a fisher's dream,
the fields would grow in but a month the herds would soon be seen.
And so they watched their worldly clock and kept it close to learn,
and when the last of wheat was there all to the road they turned.
They piled high their great delight for one last stop they had,
a story of their merriment and soldiers close at hand.
The daughters to the South that lay with enemies so near,
the men marched in with love in tow to help them from their fear.
The cowards groveled in the dust to hand their prisoners’ clean,
and in those eyes a thousand tales of all that they had seen.
Their sisters they restored them as all marched out to shore,
the boys climbed down into themselves girls’ women as before.
How does it end nobody knows but this forever true,
wherever safe as Love may be Love soon will come to you.
By Taylor Hayward
