Visitations
©February 4th, 2018
By Vijaya Sundaram
Love songs from a land unvisited
Visit me in the darkness,
There is sweetness in them,
And sorrow, and loss, of course.
Bleak moors, hills, high winds,
The call of cattle or sheep,
And the song of a girl minding them.
Love makes her apple cheeks glow,
For a young man approaches,
Red rose in hand, trepidation in his step.
Hope makes him tremble,
Certainty makes her suddenly shy.
This moment, here, now, while winds blow,
And the lowing of cattle make a world
With pressing needs encroach upon them –
This moment makes generations
Dance around their feet like fireflies.
The wind swirls around them both,
And her black hair blows about her face,
Like curtains of night sailing swiftly,
Mercilessly across a silver moon.
The young man catches his breath,
As his own dark hair is wind-whipped,
And his eyes shine like dark stars.
Now bold, she extends her hand.
They do not know anything for certain.
Perhaps, they’ll be together
Forevermore. Perhaps, not.
So, I sing of a time long ago,
Far from my own home,
Far from my life, and lifetime.
I sing of a young man who
Loves his beloved,
And of a girl who loves her swain.
And of the sorrow that must
Inevitably come, crystallizing
Into a song of yearning,
That holds them in the amber
Of Song-Time and Dream-Time,
And bring them together once more.
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