(UN)Requieted Night Transforms

(UN)Requited Night Transforms

“The frost is on the pumpkin.
The nights are getting cold.
The witch is stirring her cauldron
and at her cat does scold.
The moon is bright and clear
‘cause Halloween is near.”

-in song from my mother, Cheryl
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Drip
Drip
Drip
Drop.

The frost melts off the pumpkin.
The nights are no longer cold.
The witch has stirred last spells in song.
One story is left to be told.

Moon hides behind a fire plume,
Left by a mourning phoenix feather.
Spider ties a silken tangle in place
To protect her web from the weather.

A slippery hush squeezes past
As cat lifts one velvet paw.
Only the lonely oak knows what’s to come
Beyond bark scraped by wind’s claw.

A terrible gust washes ashore
Thirteen bees dying on the beach.
Not one creature or plant or saint is safe 
From the death call of doomsday’s reach.

Acorns and apple seeds lay in repose
Upon the honey jar.
Swarms of angry bees gather close
With harvest of memory from afar.

Oak speaks from roots buried deep:
Now is time to flap eternity’s wing.
With one gentle nod of limb he bows,
And the hive collects to sting.

With elderberry blood streaming down,
The druid shifts to life.
Bees buzz his midnight hair in part
To reunite with his ethereal wife.

His love is a lonely banshee
Who stopped singing long ago.
She exiled her voice when he disappeared,
So overcome is she with woe.

She can’t keep her back inflated.
She wails like a Winter’s storm.
Her hot tears have kept the ocean boiling
And now Earth has become too warm.

With prayers and chants and bee buzz brains,
Oak knows their reunion is one last hope.
The druid lumbers to the sea —
O’er burial mounds he descends the slope.

He bares his soul upon sandy shore,
From his chest he pulls an amber urn.
Glimmering, shimmering with steady beat
He watches as the tides begin to turn.

Heart beating in his eyes, he sees
Banshee’s swell leap up in recognition clear.
With one sharp note, she begins to screech
And fills his ears with love’s loss near.

Their embrace ripples outward through all time
To break the destructive curse.
They drink of the amber urn to amend
And heal the heart of the Universe.

Cool breeze from their exhale blows inland,
Pulling steam from sea’s searing stew.
Rain dances in clouds with shy golden dawn,
And spider builds her web anew.

Banshee takes the shape of autumn’s wind.
Druid returns to forest as Oak King.
As she dances in his leaves, they make love,
And when windchimes sound, she sings.

Cat carries seeds and acorns to the door
Of witches’ tidy garden shed.
Apple that blooms in spring is laid to rest
In dark Earth’s soft, fertile stead.

With sweet beating of universal heart
In all that ebbs and flows,
A new pattern emerges from bees’ wings
and the collective honeycomb grows.
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Drip
Drip
Drip 
Drop.
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The frost sweetens the pumpkin.
The night makes lovers bold.
The witch stirs her cauldron again.
The timeless story unfolds.
The moon is bright and clear
Upon our earthly sphere.

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copyright © 2021 Adria Badagnani