Sestina: My Lady

[bliumchik]

My lady’s ever clothed and cloaked in dark
Suffused into the shadows in the woods
Where men take silver swords and watch for death.
(The things they fear won’t look her in the eye)
She lives beneath the banner of the night
But does not bow to it, nor anyone.

My lady speaks to nobody save one
Who meets her in the courtyard after dark
And asks to be delivered to the night
And understand what lurks within the woods.
She’ll teach a willing student, eye to eye
But only those survive who fear not death.

My lady’s on familiar terms with death.
She brings her pupils to it one by one
And those who dare to look into its eyes
Will never ever after fear the dark
Or need to tread with caution in the woods
For we are also promised to the night.

My lady’s in your courtyard on this night
To see if you’re prepared to swear till death
And after, if you’re ready for the woods.
And if you are then all you need is one
Small drop to ease the hunger of that dark
Abyss that watches from within her eyes.

My lady’s not yet plain to your green eye
You’ve not yet sworn allegiance to the night
But you can hear her footsteps in the dark.
Choose carefully for if you walk with death
You’ll never breathe a word to anyone
Of what you see that lurks within the woods.

My lady’s here to lead you to the woods.
Remember, as you walk, don’t turn your eyes
From where her footprints surface one by one
Lest something find you fodder for the night
Before you make your final pact with death
And take your place behind her in the dark.

Apprenticed one by one within the woods
We see the dark – she holds it in her eye
And we are clothed in night who fear not death.

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Bringin' the sestina! Well done, and nicely crafted, too. Have you thought about writing one for every day this month?

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

Good god no. That there's a bitch of a poem to write. wrisomifu = ten minutes a day minimum (no way I stop at ten minutes when I really get going) on various and sundry projects. That'll do for me.

[active-apathy.livejournal.com]

...OMGsestina.

*is at a loss to figure out how they're even possible*

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

They're fiddly little bastards. You have to pick words you won't get sick of for the ends of lines, and ones that double as different grammar forms, and suchlike. Neil Gaiman wrote an awesome vampire sestina in Smoke and Mirrors, which is why I've wanted to do one.