The Fairy Feller’s Farewell

(For Richard Dadd)

By J.S. Watts

 

There’s a tiny, wee circle,
just off the lane by Crowthorne,
cut light into the soil.
Stand still enough, long enough,
you’ll hear bells laughing in the wind
and the sound of a chestnut cracking
under life’s mortal pressure and
the swing of a dainty axe

inside the shadows of the mind.
Daisies flock to say farewell
and Forget-me-not sighs sad songs
in the shadow of the nearby wall.
You could paint a lifetime’s colours
with the echo of her voice,
but her lover’s long time gone,
leaving only his valediction.

He cut the night, one day,
with a specially sharpened knife
and stepped into its dark,
with a choked farewell
that faded with the breeze
and the coughing up of time,
to nothing but two bells
wailing in the wind.

 

 


J.S.Watts is a British writer. Her poetry, short stories and book reviews appear in a wide variety of publications in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the States and have been broadcast on BBC and Independent Radio.  J.S. is the author of five books. Her poetry collections, Cats and Other Myths and Years Ago You Coloured Me, plus a multi-award nominated SF poetry pamphlet, Songs of Steelyard Sue are published by Lapwing Publications. Her novels, A Darker Moon – dark, psychological fantasy and Witchlight, a paranormal tale, are published by Vagabondage Press. For further details see: www.jswatts.co.uk

 


Featured image via Max Pixel, CC0