No spell can dispel mortality’s shade.
Grieving heart layered tight, a papered
wasp’s nest — dreading the seasons’ spin,
round and round unending.

Raw-throated weeping
wakes the sleeping gods.

From deep within, hope rays, a
feeble flame against the fearsome 
storm of doubt: 
Never enough. Never enough.

The wind whispers challenge:
Must praise be earned or can self-acclaim
call forth our best selves?

Now shadow-shattering
Balor blinks open one 
brilliant blinding eye. 

Comes longest day, revel 
in steaming summerlight, swallow 
the solstice sun’s 
molten honey.

Let love ignite 
gods-gladdened hearts.

Blazing bright, 
ever enough,
dance the seasons
round and round unending.

[The Fomorian god Balor embodied the scorching sun in battle. Here his searing radiance burns away mortal sorrow. Author Lyri Ahnam spins poetry and stories from the ancestral homelands of the Illiniwek in southern Illinois. Her work has been published by Abyss & Apex, Bullet Points Magazine, Eternal Haunted Summer, and others. She publishes a monthly newsletter of book reviews, thought-provoking essays, and links to her latest publications. Sign up at LyriAhnam.com.]