Bring the heavens down
Raise that Fenris wolf
you have seen
the best of all days, the worst of them
and from the sight
you form destruction in the palm of your hand,
you carve a trumpet from the bones
of stolen gods
and then your call
makes the stars shake on Night’s velvet veil

Call the name like sparrow song
Call the name like dynamite exploding
call me by my name, wind and ash, snow and moonrise;
the keys in my hand are colder than vengeance
and the coals of my heart
consume from within
I cannot stop
I cannot stop and wonder;
kiss my lips with a trumpet mouth
but say my name, this once at least

There was once a beast
We are the lords of beasts
but details do not matter;
claws and fangs tear sharpest in the dark
and when the sun points arrows at the earth
beasts can still bite and bites still sting.
Trickster, make them own what’s theirs,
make them own the debt
like a tolling of bells, like an echo of bones

Fold nights and days like paper beasts
Fold the moon into my hair, my hands, my kisses
fold my words into the smell of dewy flowers;
I’ll give you one truth
for all the lies that I have told
like bedtime stories: they will
not be buried under the sky
the beasts and masters of deceit
will find their way back
through ash and snow, storm and bloodthick earth

Make the stars paint the night with fire
But hide your eyes behind my hands
Make the wolf howl in the language of trumpets and bells
But hide your ears from the splintering lives
give me a cup
but hold my hands
full with warmth against the cold
but mind the burning bite of this drink
fill me with the minds of swords
but hold your mind like sails in storm
and hear the bell, the bell is tolling, a bell for all my unanswered screams
and my lips are stitches torn, cuts too deep to heal, bonemarks that will never fade.

[Alexandra Seidel probably caught the myth and fairy tale bug while she was out in the woods one midsummer day. Meanwhile, the disease has turned her into a Rhysling-nominated poet, a writer, and an editor. Her first collection of stories and poems, All Our Dark Lovers, is forthcoming from Morrigan Books on Valentine’s Day 2013. Other work may be found in Mythic Delirium, Goblin Fruit, Stone Telling, and elsewhere. You can follow her on Twitter (@Alexa_Seidel) or read her blog.]