The Hiding

(for Onweald)

By Sandy Lender

 

Mellada glides through the halls of the hiding

Searching the quiet and with her time biding

Her women in waiting are noiselessly crying

Under the thundering of crashes subsiding

 

The walls of the halls with seawater dripping

Sheltering, sweltering, saps strength from the living

But Mellada’sures them, with comforting smiling

The stones of the crone all beguiling with scrying

 

None see the wink, the blink passing slyly

‘tween crone and queen for the calming of lying

Searching the quiet, preparing morn’s breaking

Dreaming is passing with sighing and waking

 

There is calm in resigning, a peaceful abiding

Finding new life in declining the fighting

Their warriors’ deaths on the wind news is blowing

Chiming and banging, the death tolls extolling

 

The clanging with sunrise outside the hall’s hiding

Alarms and disturbs with a dragon force flying

The wind of his wings crashes boulders high piling

And blocking the holes to the halls of the hiding

 

Mellada sings through the halls of the hiding

Her voice lowly mewling from shadows soft spreading

Her women in waiting like whispers receding

Till oceans of time with their gods they’re pleading

 

A hush lines the still dripping halls of the hiding

Where Mellada died with her women in waiting

Their souls washed with mem’ries of saltwater sinking

And ocean rocks filt’ring their bones for the seining

 

4 thoughts on “The Hiding

  1. As a sometime fan of some fantasy (I’m more science fiction), I fell into this story all the way. I’m especially fond of the use of -ing to end each line and even inside each line. It’s especially effective that some are gerunds and some are verbs. They add action to your story.

    These are my favorite lines:
    •”But Mellada’sures them, with comforting smiling”‘
    I love how you use her name to contract the missing letter in the next word. I might steal this device in a future poem. Clever and very poetic!

    •”The stones of the crone all beguiling with scrying
    The double use of -ing in one line — one verb and one noun — is rich!

    •”None see the wink, the blink passing slyly
    ‘tween crone and queen for the calming of lying”
    The internal rhymes of “wink” and “blink” as well as the use of -ing. — love it! Plus that last one — “calming of lying” — caught me by surprise although I should have know something unexpected was coming with the sly wink and blink! I was also deceived. This line slapped me in the face — in a good way — and made me pay closer attention as I continued reading.

    This line: “Their warriors’ deaths on the wind news is blowing” gave me pause — and not for a good reason. The rhythm feels off even if it’s not. I think it’s because I’m tripping over the meaning and had to backtrack. Is there another way to say It so it’s clearer without the stumble that it is the news of that warriors’ deaths that is blowing on the wind?

    Do I need to say I like this poem? I hope it’s one of your submissions for the anthology.

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