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by Steven "Prometheus" Hoey
Sharp! Sprang dawn’s shards of light
Apollo’s gleaming daggers pierced the murky gloom
Each to each his shafts in three cross the room
Seven triads formed by twenty and one sentry sight
Apollo’s chariot screamed soundless into the sky
One by one, the triangles seven moved in time
A pattern ancient echoed long ’fore the bell’s chime
Seven into one pattern formed as the chariot rose high
The seventh at last joined the spectral fray
Brightly burning lights’ lament bore hot
As a door removed opened unto the very spot
Yesterday rushed in with memories of time gone away
Falconhawk flew from the ceiling’s shadowed vault
Swiftly glided to M’lords arm as he lay prone
Amidst knights once felled now turned to stone
Preserved forever in their final assault
Now freed by magic powerful and ironic
The king sat up, his hand on his sword
Whilst his other groped for his fayrest lord:
Life now renewed in a kingdom Byronic!
King Dannell of Brent rose up on his haunches
Surveying the room he barked a hearty laugh
And reached for the jug, a bolt of mead to quaff,
As all company awoke and peered o’er their paunches
Jester did a turn and stood upon his head
All laughed and clapped to the minstrel’s tune
As Walter, servant sempre, flashed them his moon!
Young Todd rose from his bench to fill all with dread!
"Now hear ye me lords, ladies and wretch alike!"
Rang his voice over the din of the assemblie,
"Hooligan antics will not be allowed except at Wembley,
Nor Wagner’s chorus so soundeth it of the Third Reich!"
"Nein!" cried Sir Greg in apoplectic rage,
"Schwein! Fool! Wagner’s music’s of the gods!
Clearly wasted on Todd and like-minded sods!"
Of music, like women, Greg preferred the Golden age.
Dan and his queen mounted the throne
"A royal feast with game from my forests!"
He proclaimed and the court cheered in chorus
A feast was prepared of the like’s never known.
Salmon were fished and wild boar hunted
Forty swans snared and seasoned a-plenty
Whilst beluga-stuffed prawns were skewed in twenty.
In the moat, long-poled Nubians punted.
Wood birds sang their melodies high and sweet
Meadow flowers filled the glade with perfume
Squire Hector rode hard; on his head a plume
On his loins fair Susan’s cheeks flushed with love’s heat.
All was bliss in Dannell’s kingdom fine
Libations (and poetry) were copious, laudenum sublime;
The bards were the best, never failing to rhyme,
The sheep were kept drunk on brandy and wine.
The victuals covere tables wide and long
The gathering drew near to tuck into the stuff
When in staggered the wizard looking mean and rough;
The minstrels fell silent, breaking off their song.
To them he spake:
"An omen ill hath I spied in my crystal balls!
All is not well, so you’d better eat fast
For the revelry and fun will certainly not last!"
The wizard trembled as a shadow came over the halls.
The court grew anxious at this Childe’s herald
For the wiz. wasn’t a man, but a very tall boy.
Rarely serious — was this another prankish ploy?
Yet he looked truly vexed, sweat matting his hair gold.
"We shan’t exist for very much longer,"
His voice cried out across the room,
"The Necromancer’s struck and sealed our doom!
Though I’ve conjured and hexed, his magic’s the stronger."
"We are to be but memory locked in a fevered brain
Only to be waked by a pissed poet’s tale
From a sleep seeming endless hid ’hind time’s veil."
[And I best finish this tale as it’s pissing of rain!]
So it was ‘down-in-one’ their tankards empty
As they scrambled o’er tables stuffing it all in
Then groped and grabbed for one last fleshly sin
Before locked away by a warlock’s decree.
Alas, patient (?) listener, that’s all I have to tell
A kingdom and time once here now gone
Like a night’s sweet romance disturbed by dawn
Take solace that memories are sweet as well!