Samhain Song

[Irish Bard]

Happy Halloween - from a book I'm working on entitled Sovereigns of the Seasons

Samhain Song
Soon come winter's meditations,
Fever dreams now take the throne,
Glows, vapours, and garish visions.
Summer's wakeful joy is gone.

Weird lights sculpt shadows
Between equinox and solstice.
Stir the mists, call to hollows
Mildew's defiance of the ice.

Plucked strings, sweet purrs,
Faerie music, fair violins.
Samhain song stirs the moors
Pixie minstrels, singing goblins.

Man claps, numbered steps
Flitting fool, swayed by spells.
Rhyming words on rasping lips
Call other things to dance as well.

Blackened rot coats bare roots,
Fingers, serpents, writhing dragons
Coil, trap, and tug a misplaced foot
Into the earth's marble mansions.

He leaps, he twirls, he slips!
Barken skin finds flesh
Wraps legs, drags, grips.
Earth opens, a growing gash.

Pointed ears, edged smiles.
Goblins smirk as the soil gnaws.
Another prancer joins the pile.
Fool unlearned in ancient laws.

Black blood enriches earth.
Thirsty roots and sleeping seeds
Drink through frost to spring rebirth.
At Samhain song, the forest feeds.