Weak, was I, and woebegone,
living in the village of want and waste,
when I wandered, weary, to the whispering wood
and lay me down there in hemlock’s grace.

Reposed in my chamber of thistle and ivy,
eyes all a’flutter like flickering film,
there arose such a spectre from beneath the bluebells,
as sure as the light, as hazy as pilm.

Swift was my host, and light in his step,
black smoke dancing in midsummer light.
Flittering here, fluttering there,
never had I seen such a winsome wight!

Tip-tapping chanterelles, unfurling the ferns,
waking the millpond, calling on sparrow ––
to conjure the winds and play in the reeds,
rustle the leaves, and tickle the yarrow.

The ivy rose up ‘round my crown and my face,
the bluebells –– an ocean upon wooded brae.
As I, now beneath them, took up my pipes,
the faire-wood symphony soon ‘roused to play.

The arms of the willow chimed and they sang
an operetta that soothed a wearisome heart,
while the trillium danced to the fugue of frogs,
the cadence of cicadas set the score apart.

I clung to the gossamer of a dandelion seed
and drifted above the dark maestro’s hymn,
piping the tune to an oak-leaf adagio
I learnt as a child upon a daydream’s din.

As way gave to way, and day passed to dun,
the wood was illumined by moonflies and fire.
The mouldwarps made stand of my body and bones,
and the Deer King himself took up the lyre.

The flowers kept the revels with a drink and a song
as a fogge of white petals showered the scene.
And aye, among them, the maestro took form,
‘Twas none but Puck! Walking the worlds between.

He set eyes upon me and cried out from the dance:
“Awaken, sweet shadow! Awaken, dear one!
Breath-soul be upon you, all is not lost!
Hold fast to these elf-songs, your life is not done!” 

I woke myself singing beneath twisted root,
a song for the threads of the crisp golden dawn,
and staggered, I, weary, from my damp woodland grave
as my heart escaped swiftly on a quick-flighting fawn.

[Silvatiicus Riddle (He/They) is a Rhysling-nominated Dark Fantasy/Speculative Fiction Writer & Poet living in New York City. His work has appeared in: Strange Horizons, Apex, Enchanted Living, EHS, Spectral Realms, and Creepy Podcast, among others. He combats despair and entropy with his newsletter, The Goblin’s Reliquary. For all available works, please visit: http://linktr.ee/silvatiicusriddle.]