AURORA

Eons passed and eons passing,
Still they wend their ethereal way,
Unhaphazardly searching, searching,
Knowing he must come one day.

Queenly mien, her passionate splendor,
Throbbing heart of that host of stars,
Spiraling 'round her--light-years--yonder,
Guarding her from cosmic chars.

Every nook and every cluster,
In that endless, infinite space,
Felt her lounging, seeking luster,
Searching for their trysting place.

Was it, then, a dream she'd reckoned
As a message from afar?
'T was for naught she'd sought and beckoned
For some incongruous star?

Alas--her lonely heart is sobbing,
And her color waning low.
No more palpitating, throbbing
For the love she used to know.

Oh the longing and the aching--
Would she never know of peace?
Could she go on, never taking,
Tasting of love's saccharine feast?

Pitifully were they fixed,
Fettered in grievous mien,
Softly, broodingly,
Deep in litany,
Solemn, funereal
Procession of stars,
Fearfully eying her palsied form.
Helpless were they
To lift even a finger
To extend

In sympathetic consolation.
Now through the vast,
And still spaces
Erebus reigned.

Mute were they
Who would give their
Very lives
That she might live
And regain
Her past and regal splendor.

Ne'r would have quivered
A candle flame.
All was still--
Quiet as the eternal night--
Hush
As the bier of Charon--
Silent
As a tomb of death.

Then!--
But for a single moment--
Silence upon silence!
How stiller still!
No rising breast!
No thought was thought!
No beating pulse!
Nor breath!

She stirred!
The spell was broken!
A voice--"See!"

And out the illimitable wastes
A new light afar--
More sensed than seen.
Such rapture!
Such ecstasy!
Joyous confusion reigned!

"He has come!!"
No more does Erebus hold sway
With fertile fields for gloom and woe
To reap the harvest of seeds
Of despair and misery.

He knows he is done,
And draws his dismal cloak about him.
Guiltily, he departs.

Lo Aurora!

With her come her sprite attendants
Dancing nymphs in sweet refrain,
Joyous song and haloed reverence
Ring throughout her new domain.

     

© 1997 by Pasqual S. Schievella