Pagan Return

by Willi Brown


I

 

The summer ended

the sun went south

                        by the light of the moon

                        he danced his

                        dance of death.

I was his witness.

His body could not

be found.

 

II

 

The day breaks

to silence

                        the local birds

                        can sense

                        when to be still.

Our crops are failing and

our gods are dead.

                        Even the great Pan is gone.

                        I can smell it,

something has ended.

So I kneel

                        as I've been shown

                        before the New God,

                        eyes shut, hands clasped,

and pray to this unseen

but allegedly all-knowing One,

                        "Help us!"

 

III

 

The children now

somehow grown

                        like plants in a myth.

                        Yet my sadness lingers

                        and I often wander off.

I have lived through

my usefulness and

my wife is long dead.

                        The priestess smiles as

                        I walk past her out to

                        the edge of the fields

wondering, "What does it mean,

'the dead go west'?"		

next



tuesday...