james_

Lancel and Chirona

By the shore does Lancel stand
And cast his gaze upon the sand
A woman walking does he see
Chirona by her name is she
A lady of a lower class
But fair as any in his past
And so he asks her for her name
And she replies and asks the same
The reason for his standing here
She soon acquires a wish to hear

Upon this lonely stretch of ground
A king once stood and cast around
His gaze upon a battle wild,
Usurpers who would kill his child
Attacked him here to steal his crown
Upon this lonely stretch of ground

But surely, sir, any man
could stand upon this piece of land
and knowing well its history
rest his eyes upon the sea.
Something else, I fear to ask
Dominates your saddening past

So Lancel then proceeds to speak
And tell the tale of this beach

When war did end, and king had won
his enemies reduced to none
he stacked their bodies in a cart
and to his castle did depart.
The bodies dumped upon the ground
In woods which did the keep surround
And brought his mistress out to view
The safety of her child anew.
but yet the queen did wildly cry
my brother with the dead does lie
and fleeing to this beach to find
her siblings blood had turned to rime
for winters chill had come at last
and scavengers did make repast
on skull and bone, on lung and heart
which had not rode the monarchs cart.
And in her came eyes tears to form
Like gathering of winter storms
And so she made her life to end
Her soul in heaven to ascend

And still I fail to clearly see
How sorrows tale applies to thee

My mother Lluth, was born that queen
And ended here her life serene
And here I come to see the grave
Of mother and her sibling knave.
And tell me know, oh shining maid
What brings you to the beach of Raed

My mother here did lay her head
Her birthing pains and fear to shed
Her husband being out of sight
In war he died, though did not fight.
So here she sat without a mate
Her child to evacuate
And through the labour hard and long
She sang an ancient river song
A boatman friend had taught to her
About a time before the war
When barges cut the land across
Steered by man and pulled by horse.
And when the child at last did fall
Chirona was she heard to call
And then expiring from the strain
Her body lay in summer rain.
Her only child and final sound
Were uttered here upon this ground.

And now ,the hour growing late,
This pair must quickly separate.
The girl her supper to attend.
The man his castle to defend.
But knowing both that very soon
Upon this beach, beneath the moon
A lover each had slowly found.
But now they part without a sound.
A meeting need they not arrange,
Just wait for frost and driving rain
For to this place, both are drawn
By memories of winter storms
And here they surely both will meet
The drumming of their hearts two beats
Which now have fallen in as one
Beneath a heavy fading sun.