Later, after work, and the journey home,
and supper done, and the sun down —
right down, all the way sunk in the dark —
with the pubs shut, 
and the last tram gone from the station,
when even the fucking of foxes and howling of owls
has hushed and hushed again
and the silence has softly gone silent:

after all that is done and done and done and done and done, they

step

out

from behind the corners of shadows,
from under the shadows of corners
in their glittering raiment,
shining in our sorrows:
all the drag of our days
all our boredom, all our sighs
all our quotidian heartbreak and lies
now woven tight in the sparkling brocade
of their majestical crowns and gowns.

[Wes Viola is a pen name of Wes White. ‘Lords & Ladies’ is the second poem from his ‘Weird Medieval October’ cycle to appear in Eternal Haunted Summer after ‘Song & Dance’ was featured in Summer Solstice 2025. Other poems from this collection have been published (or are set to be) by Gotham Literature, Eunoia Review, The Winged Moon and The Candyman’s Trumpet. You can download a free copy of ‘Thirteen Names for the West’ – a coven-sized set of poems dedicated to the Wicked Witch of Oz infamy – and explore more of his work at http://linktr.ee/wesviola]