Why cannot omens be undone!
They visit ill thoughts and fears
upon us, adding punishment
to what is to come
‘praps even depressing all
to bring about that promised doom.

There, beneath the low trees
crouched the dark fairy-wife
lamenting our cursed house
her song heard across the woods
warning well-wishers away
and calling the dark coach onwards.

A headless spectre drives the horses
come to fetch a soul
he will not leave without one
yet I cannot give up my kin
I dare not
for I am nothing without them.

Yet the siren is strangely soft now
enchanting, a murmur of memories
as if stories spoken at a wake
fondly bidding farewell to the phantom
of fellow, family and folly
ah, then, I see it is me that they await.

[AJ Dalton (www.ajdalton.eu) is a UK-based writer. He’s published the Empire of the Saviours trilogy with Gollancz Orion, The Satanic in Science Fiction and Fantasy with Luna Press, the Dark Woods Rising and Green Man Ascendant poetry collections with Starship Sloane, and other bits and bobs. He lives with his monstrously oppressive cat named Cleopatra.]