knight poem 1.24.2k5

 

            The snowy forests of days apast

            abate the warmth and ways of kind young men.

            Noble and men good the forest wanders

            Ahead to the silencing of trees by snow

            and shuddering wind the final blow

            to thought to threat the man's misfortune.

 

            So froze the forest and left the man

            to fall hands sinking sadly into snow

            trunks stiff and stale like the legs of trees

            tears trapped in his eyes and ticking trickling inside.

            Inward the man urged on hands and legs

            burnt alive by isolation the snow

            companion his only, pet his head

            and stifled his courage in the silence of trees.

 

            The gruff snort of a horse mistook silence

            though it too was muted heard the man.

            A turn of his head was all the snow

            had not stole his one last gift.

            Sight was last he had, after thought and mind

            were taken from him muted in white velvet.

           

            The snow found another on road

            the shadow of a Knight broken in patches

            by falling snow the black fur collected

            the cold who froze dark armor.

            The helm of the Knight iced beyond trees, man, and earth

            because metal is colder than silent wood

            buried stone, or the breath of a man's death.

 

            The man found courage to voice

            a cry to the knight atop his horse.

            The knight moved not his lance

            for he heard nought but his own

            numbness wrought indifference

            as the heat of his heart the winter won.

 

            He watched the knight tip off the saddle

            no sound he made as he hit

            softened snow stilled with pale feathers

            The Man whose quest left unfinished.

            Death covered valor and strength

            the winter had not allowed him to show.

           

            The horse sensed the flight of freedom

            in its master's demise, for compromise

            the winter gifted the beast but not the knight

            nor the man who was left to die

            like the knight to die inside in silence in snow.