Gnomes and Natural Orders

In my life I've known just four
Gems from the emerald isle
Magic tripped across those stones
Fire trips across their smile

My first teacher of deception
A beautiful aging crone
A hundred years of laughing
Creasing the face of stone

She was of second order
Not a ruler born
But strong beyond the preening men
Whose castles she would storm

Under her I strode the planks
Swashbuckling pirate gentle man
No limits or horizons
To stop our forward plan

From her I took a precious gift
Passion channeled force
Extension and regression
Pummeled and reforge'd

Yet even gnomes will leave this world
Much as children leave the sand
And leave the surging passions
Without a guiding hand

My only friend long-lost
Young gnome-child in a human world
Kneeling on the ground
Together to be alone

Second-order once again
Blue rocks beneath orange fire
Most common of the rare gems
Most glorious of the flames

I lost him to the lightest breeze
That blew us from our course
I hear of him on windy nights
He cries sometimes with pain

Lost tormented alone again
That weakness the gnome's bane
He searches for a lighthouse
With return a distant flame

The third a mother goddess
Or matron of her line
Struck at spirits joining
Tired of holding time

She wraps about her arms deception
As we are want to see
Meets out justice to her subjects
With royal love's decree

Beautiful aloof as dawning
Flash of fire on hair and skin
I know her still but do not know her
And assume I never will

It was the fourth who held me
Pretender and half-gnome
Across the long years solitude
When hope had come and gone

A deeper red blood cherry
Soft silken remembered now
A deeper pull at nature's well
Cool breeze on fevered brow

From her I gathered ages
Years beyond my time
Hopes fears and frozen flames
Crystal pools I cannot swim again

And so I love these creatures
Though with remote and calloused hand
From whom I've drawn great loves
And to whom they've returned again

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This work is Copyright (c) Mike Fletcher 2002