Two Years

TWO YEARS

By JC STREET © 2004 October 6, 1977 Boston

1. Wolf Winter (style=10th-11th c AD)

Three wolves came in the new moon;
Aidne was with child
they screamed in the night

Sun coppers Slieve Mish
the earth is taken with the hardness of steel
when our feet stumble on it
the skins of our shoes sword-brittle

Three wolves died
there was little food
we slaughtered dogs
the warriors ranged
nothing was found

Aidne’s child cries in the dark;
her breasts are sere
I fed her with my share

2. Padraig slays Damien

Padraig was terrible
when he slew Damien
his buckler hard with blood

Damien rose up from the ground
by Slieve Mish
and slashed a crimson burst
but Padraig slew him terribly

Small flowers are on
Damien’s grave this Spring
with white faces

the sun opens their arms

Aidne is a huddled figure when
sun murders the trees
at even
the flowers fold their arms at even

3. A second winter

The widow of Brian shows veins
like the branches of small trees
on her skin
this winter

It is so cold this winter
that the Slieve Mish people
are crying

the warriors have gone to the sea
they are frozen on the sea, or
dead of the Norsemen

the coracles are frozen
with their hard blood

The fires are smoking
under Slieve Mish
there is no wood

there is no wood to cook
the wolf
that Padraig finds frozen at day’s breaking

4. Aidne Dies of her Second Child

Aidne was always at my side
even when I was dead of Padraig’s
terrible blow
she was with me

I do not see her now
though she is dead
and I am dead

Aidne was big with my child
her breasts were full
and white

my hands found them and
warmed them in winter

But she was murdered by my seed
that grew in her and
strangled her life’s cry

Now she is at my side
no longer
even in death

-30- revised March 3, 2004