Concert for Dusk

Slender fingers tread ever lightly

upon hallowed roads of jet and ivory.

Singing high a resonant tune,

reaching up to touch the moon.

Amber rays caress the field,

nurturing a bounty yet to yield.

Nascent stalks tip and sway

as she plays away another day.

Words that long lost their meaning

summon her back to a world of dreaming.

A magical realm of green and blue;

a place where wishes really do come true.

Boards of ancient lumber unflinching,

beneath a roof of sun-kissed stitching.

Made from reeds grown near the stream

where little Dawn often went to daydream.

Inside, the hearth is already aglow

casting a flickering light upon the duo

waiting within for her eventual return.

A fable to which she can only yearn.

Thirty years, to the very hour

since the day she picked that wildflower.

Late to arrive from her usual sojourn.

Just in time to watch her parents' cottage burn.

Frenzied screams filled the night

Emotionless faces framed in firelight.

Not a single one went to stop the blaze.

They didn't so much as turn their gaze.

Those smoldering torches now came her way.

They wanted to finish the young stray.

Something screamed about her pointed ears -

she barely heard them through the tears.

They reached for her with calloused hands,

stopped short by a furious command.

Thick with the accent of a distant land,

from the mythical domain beyond the Eversand.

He fell upon them in a blur,

refusing them any further time to answer.

Coruscating steel almost seemed to purr

as a man with pointed ears killed for her.

Dusk, the man called himself,

claiming to be something called an Elf.

He'd been on his way to see her mother.

The little girl apparently had a half-brother.

The Humans and Elves were at war, Dusk said.

Unfortunately the blood in her veins was red.

The man did his very best to explain

why she couldn't come live in the Elves' domain.

So the girl had to stay in that empty village.

Dusk remained only until he rebuilt her cottage.

The other inhabitants had fled at once,

for fear of rekindling the warrior's vengeance.

Every year, on the same day they'd met on,

Dusk came back to visit little Dawn.

Bringing seeds so she could grow her own forest -

a little piece of the homeland for her to nourish.

Except one year, his visits just ceased.

The war had finally proved too great a beast.

All alone, Dawn and her overgrown wilds.

Isolated in her lush world, forever an exile.

The sun creeps further towards its daily rest.

Her final chords echo in the vernal wilderness. 

And as the moon slowly lifts above the loam,

Dawn still hopes that Dusk will bring her home.

Reviews

[Kristan Key]

This is amazing!!! Everything about it, from the story to the imagery is incredible! Great job!

[Sazaku]

Thank you very much.