Story - 'A Passing Mage Sang Me a Song......'
JASON KNOTT
A passing mage sang me a song
Not more than green sap, he said, yet you will witness
The great and the wretched, the new and outdated
You will grow and be mighty
You will know sun and wind and the weight of time
As the years passed, I spread my fingers to catch light
And stretched my silver-grey skin
My arms proud boughs
A canopy of leaves, white blossom, red fruit and green moss
And deep roots for the cool quiet earth
I knew battle
The vain cries of men invisible in mist
Ring of swords and clash of bones
The panic of beasts
The weeping of women and children
Spilled blood bright on snow
I knew enchantment
The sighs of a lover bound tightly to my trunk
A carved heart for the lost
A sleeping traveller
A couple dining on a blue woollen blanket
Spilled wine sweet on grass
hrough England's ages of flickering vignettes
Via ancient stones and old magic
Entertained by shadows and ghosts
Anchored to this good quiet soil
To hold moonlit vigils for felled friends
Four hundred summers
Of twig and leaf, of branch and bough
The star wheel endlessly turning
I bore witness to each day
And sang the mage's song