Ballade of the Recently Dispossessed
I planted apple trees between the shadow of the pines I lit the lanterns, scrubbed the sun-starved windows of their scum For aye, this house was emptiness, and this home would be mine But promises are lies and jests when truth with autumn comes. ...
Ragnarok - XXIII
Somewhere, amongst the ruins of ruins The legions of dishonored dead, hissing As might an immolated corpse upon A burning ship, at cold saltwater's touch, With agonizing slowness flung themselves Against the hated company who held, Though...
Sunstroke
We heard of him in fairy tales, Unfinished epics, songs in braille. From all ends of the ending earth We tracked him to this place. We each believed the others fools. But all believe: those are the rules. At last his trail, Like...
Ragnarok - XXIV
It grinned. It ripped a fist of mangling claws Down like a meteor. It gouged the stairs, Where Varr and the Old Man had stood away As could a spoon through cold whipped butter-cream, But they had ducked, had rolled under its palm As it passed just...
Haunted Ballade
Where is the home that once I knew, that stood Deep in the meadow drifts, encircled nigh With tender orchard groves, then emerald woods That slumbered as the summer clouds slipped by? Beneath the twisted briars those meadows lie. The fallow...
The Sun's Funeral
The iron of the road was grey And greyer was the sky. The sun showed not a single ray, So damned the way and damned the day That Gawain went to die. I was late to the wedding. Twas whose I barely knew; They had asked me out of kindness, as...
The Sisters of Vengeance
Oh the sisters of vengeance they have not forgotten or fled. I see them still watching the stormclouds that hang overhead. And they told me my fortune and someday I'll know what they said, Though I hope it won't matter until I've been many years...
Ragnarok - XVII
Said Varr, voice hollow like a man bereaved And echoing around the council hall, "Never before have I turned tail. What has Become of Last to Flee? If such as I, By death made undying, by corruption Made incorruptible in who we are, Already have...
Ragnarok - XXII
Shane found the Old Man waiting underneath A spreading and a skeletal ash tree. And he was not alone. Beside him stood The Lady, with her ineffable smile, The Old Woman, frowning upon her cane, The Witchfolk King, rolling brown oak leaf...
Ragnarok - Epilogue
So ends the tale of Shane the Champion. Of his blood-brother, Varr the Last-to-Flee. Of Klau the Berserker, called the Blacksword. Of the Old Man, who some hold was a god. Of the lost Witchfolk, and their young Lady Who solely of her people is not...
Ragnarok - XXV
Darkness, and the stench of rotten eggs To make his eyes water. If he had held His hand before his face, Shane could have seen No glove, no fist, no color or outline. He did not bother to. He blinked the sting Out of his eyes, and strained toward...
Ragnarok - XX
"Man's voices have been silent for too long. His songs are gone long unsung. Man has been Long disenchanted in this latter age. What songs are sung in triumph, and what hymn Is raised to god or gods above the stars? How often is there heard the...