Story - 'A Passing Mage Sang Me a Song......'

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The great and the wretched, the new and outdated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