Bride to Be (part eight)

Bride to Be (part eight)

I dismounted

This tree that marked the knoll had no known like

her heart agape at the root, her wood aged white

polished to gloss by the antler of the stag

the bark of her burnt and lightning stripped

the curious leaves we ladies pressed

on cloth to trace their pattern with our needles

He’d laid his camp all round the spot

My mare quietened to a dainty walk

In my secret mind dared I to think

He protects me, he has done all this to keep me safe

Yet that the young men for mayhem chafed

I sought of the wisewoman harbor

She sat before a charcoal pit

O’er which a wet skin held the smoke

And called me, being elder, daughter

Daughter, what do I here? I tell you.

The third day hence shall stones I’ve cast

by their colors declare the fate

of your father’s kingdom and Alderic’s

once every man his brazier

hath borne to the hearth of his married home

And if the fire speed and it does not rain

Good fortune, child, to you and to your swain!

Bride to Be

Forbidden Fruit

Bride to Be (part nine)

(2019, Stephanie Foster)