Dream A Little Dream Of Me

by horizon


4. The old stallion calls me (Foehn)

Hotspur

The old stallion calls me
Out of fear of unrest,
and the unknown.

He needn’t have bothered;
The dream is restless
And I walk alone
In a land of strangers.

The Mooken
Dream of their goddess
Dayang Dayang Mangilai
And her sacred dangkan tree
Each blossom, they say, each leaf
Tells a story
Joined by so many
Vines and branches all tangled
together.
And they speak of their great
Kalamats
The most skilful, it is said
Could trace by moonlight
The ways and paths between
And in doing so,
Illuminate for themselves
The dreams of others

I am no god
Nor have I ever known a goddess
Save the Sun and Moon.
Yet dreams do not lie.

I behold the tree:
It is dead.

Its branches are gone
Its trunk is gone
And its roots are covered
In thorns of the thousand
Black roses that ensnared it,
Sapped it of its life,
And died themselves: 
Their petals form a stygian carpet
Upon the grave.

There is another tree,
Sprouting from the
Broken limbs of the first
And it lives

And branch by branch
I can follow it
And trace its stories

I step closer and the         dream

bends

around

me

A lily, wilted
And in its place
A rose, black without
But a bloodier shade within
A rose by any other name
Is just as cruel;
Littlemoth
Palei Hantu
Changeling

why don’t they suspect me yet
i had no choice i was starving
knew i couldn’t hide amongst
the two-legs but all the others were
dead
and i couldn’t pass the Wall
 for fear of being
 trapped
too risky they said
the two-legs can see
the things between
and will see you too
i took the risk

A bluebell droops over
The roses’ head
Leaning ever
Closer

I am a dedicated bull, Palei Hantu.
When I caught you bedding my brother
and you ran from his hut

of course they found out
i was stupid, desperate
but not dead like the others
 why did he chase me
 to the Wall of all places
even we avoid that place
perhaps he knew and thought
he’d trap me outside
i took another risk
 and though spotted by

the Myinn guard
who sat up startled
after you vaulted the rampart
shouted and flung his spear at me

a quick confounding and
the guard was none the wiser
 i had to find someone to replace
too many eyes and ears on the wall
 i slunk away found one
with wings of skin and grey
i was so careless i had no time
her body thrown off the
docks

All around a chorus
of whispers
answers:
The lines between
dreams
blur

and though i feed
upon them

drew the gazes of the room
like a lightning-bug upon a darkened stage

and the foolish guard

until Dawn Patrol fluttered to her flame

and another

as our tangled bodies
sung carnal hymns
to each other

i know
it won’t last
i know
they'll find her
any day now
i'm trapped again
where are the boats
where
are
 the
boats

The question
Rings out;
The whispers
Are silent
Confused
And waiting

A dawn lotus
floats
in the black rose’s
shadow;
It’s petals
All the darker
It answers;
I listen

Littlemoth
dances behind my eyelids. I can’t let them get
her
Can’t let them know because as soon as they do they’ll chase them and they’ll come after
her
and the others. I can’t stop the ships forever, but if I can find a moment alone with
her
I’ll flee with
her
As soon as I can get
her
alone

At the thought
Of the ships, the
dangkan responds:

A creeper
girdles the
tree trunk
choking
the life
of an
emerald
limb

The boats have stopped and I
do not know why or who
is responsible only that it
means more raised voices and
more raised voices means
dissent and complaints and
Peridot always was the loudest

She doesn’t trust me nor I her
I knew the old witch never could
be trusted to know her place and
even if she does not suspect my
deceptions (and I suspect that
she does) she’s too much of an
influence stirring up the wrong
kind of trouble you have to be
careful a whisper in one ear and
poison in the other is the way to
do it not screaming in front of a
full hall though blaming the tuft-
ears now that’s an idea I’ll have to
off her and make do with what’s
to come

Majority refuses to answer
when we ask him why the
boats have stopped coming
I suspect something
is going on; that we are not
being told the truth or rather
Majority is not telling the truth

Where is the money going
no trade and yet he
refuses to lower the taxes
he demands a skeleton
crew (let’s face it: our
garrison is nearly empty
if one discounts the
drunks and tuft-ears)
needs not the funds
he’s been hiding he says
a ship’s come in down at the docks
I don’t believe him of course
but I’m not sleeping so where’s
the harm in confronting the
old sod

 

Feck 'em both.
Gonna wake me up
by trippin' over me
at half past midnight
stumblin' toward the docks

easier done than said in the end
blame her death on the kelpies
now that’s the thing maybe a
speech to pull us all together
shaming those tuft-ears into
pulling their load should be
popular with the merchants

Silence
surrounds and
I merely wish
I had known
that that
was what
I wanted

 

Enough.

I step away and the         dream

breaks

around

me.

 

The tree stands still again
Its limbs singing
Of world brought to ruin
For the want of vengeance
And safe harbour;
In the name of love
And righteous suspicion
Born of greed;
And death born
Of greed
Giving birth to
Unfounded suspicion
In the name of unfounded
Hatred
Until all the blossoms one by one
Wilt and fall
In a flaky rain that
Covers the carpet of thorns
Upon which the tree rests

The rain

will not

stop until

all of the

branches

        are bare

Perhaps Dayang Dayang Mangilai
was no goddess
But a pony
Condemned to
Watch
The mistakes of others
Powerless
To stop the fall of all she held dear
And I know, now
What great lament she cried
When she saw  the
Very roots by which
Her tree grew and spread
Its limbs, were the agents
Of its long undoing
Peridot is dead and I
will not
mourn her passing.

And yet I wonder:
For this, will I
fall with them?

Dawn comes, and I must
Leave this dream for the other
Though my thoughts linger
On that final flower.
Know this, Majority:

There
will
yet
be
a
reckoning.


She stands
By the docks
Refusing to answer
The voice of the dangkan
And a cloudless sky.

Far above
The pale moon
Whispers:
“We will meet again
before you die.”