Wolf

I’m going to try daily to write something for Morktober. Often these will probably be poems, so come stop by daily to see what I’m up to. All prompts are based off Exeunt Press.

All art by Tony Tran, who also illustrated Horus & Motherfucker! Check out his patreon for more artwork.

For some reason, I really love this meter. I’ve used it a number of times before and it is devilishly difficult but there’s something in the challenge that attracts. Sitting there and agonizing over a line only to have to change the entire previous line is really a very specific kind of pleasure.

Call it the poet’s disease, probably.

A hint at what’s happening here is that each line has an internal rhyme but also the last three syllables of the first line rhyme with the second, third, and fourth syllables of the second line, and then that second line also has an internal rhyme so that the first and second lines rhyme. You repeat this again in lines five and six in each stanza.

And if that sounds complicated, it is.

If it sounds easy, you’re far cleverer than me.

Maw

Wise and fair with wet fleur hair
He met her there upon a prayer
When careless he walked errandless
Past high cypress to Briartress
The winding ways we tarried in
He carried when he kissed my skin
And lay me down upon the ground
To calm the sound of my heart’s pound

Buried beneath our bodies wreathe
Our follies seethe and none shall breathe
When teeth rise our flesh weaves neath skies
Blind to our demise, we shut our eyes
The ground below fell to our woe
And so sour low our echoed cries grow
As night’s claw closed tight this great maw
Enclosing us raw within its jaw.

And here we lie forever yet
Together in this toothy net
Where rot and dark will find us still
As we lie dying neath this hill