Three Wonderful Poems by Sadie Maskery

 

Ring

 

Triumphant, stupid as a fox

drunk on blood in the henhouse,

you refused the flame

and grabbed the eternal prize.

Predictable. And now

we tell our children,

to make them tremble in their beds,

how it perverted you -

that is your doom, not some fallen

grand display but reduction

to a fairytale. Silly immortal ghoul,

bogeyman of grief and hate.

Mouth stretched by howls,

flesh pulled thin under the black,

rubbed and worn like onionskin...

your whole being dwindles

to parchment scratched

by a dreamer's pen.

You cannot kill a dead soul

though you tried, how you tried

those nights when infinity

screamed back at you,

bound

in the darkness,

and we turned the page. 

 

 

Black

 

It's hard I know, your sire and dam

were ripped from sweet meadows

and you were born to darkness,

legs trembling, searching for milk

to find only pain and fire.

The terror throbs behind your eyes

when I put on the bridle, but at least

I weigh less than pure flesh.

Who shod you? Did they take care?

You have a long way to carry me

through these tortured lands.

The battlefield is ash, you lip in vain

for an unbloodied blade of grass.

We are both slaves, to hate, to death,

but I hope when this ends, someone

remembers that as armies fell

and I sheathed my sword

I always took the time

to clap your neck and tell you

good lad, you are a good horse.

 

 

Fell

 

We were made but new born, unbroken,

and when the towers tumbled so did we,

out of the tales. No history tells the truth

completely, evil came from both sides

but so too a little goodness, just a little.

The book is closed, morals drawn neatly

as bedsheets. Lights are quenched

and we are beyond your reach now,

cries echoing in your children's dreams.

Beauty does not define worth, or right,

but yes we are beautiful in our own way,

sinews and fiery strength, the ripple of

wings skirling and free above the stars.

Sadie Maskery lives in Scotland by the sea with her family. She has poetry accepted in Shores of Infinity, Red Planet, Hexagon, British Fantasy Society Horizons, The Selkie, Seaborne Magazine, and various other publications in print and online. She can be found on Twitter as @saccharinequeen