Pixie Led

                                  "Pixie Led"   II.

     -by Megan A. Johnson   Feb. 2014

     Lo! I have been pixie-led through lone fields, across meandering streams,
and now here to an empty meadow.
-I have wandered...time and again this night...
following red, green, and gold Will o' wisps...always at a distance.        
     Far off I spied a ring of torch-lit revelry and frolic...
but once I drew nigh, the lights and music blinked out...
as though a candle suddenly snuffed. Muting the night.
       
     Then, again, I would hear sweet singing from afar,
joined with child-like laughter...and sweet deep aromas
would creep about me, climbing steadily up to my face.
   -What wonderful and exotic foods they must be cooking!
   And off again I'd be in pursuit through the dew-damp growth
   underfoot...thorns grasping and tearing at my legs
   ....soaking me to the bone on this chill night.  
     
     ...But how could I not follow to discover from whence
this enchanting delight and allure comes?
     From what small and tantalizingly smooth throats
might these angelic notes issue forth?

                   ...Maddening!...

    Once more, I came upon their wild revelry so close
that I could not help but to spy a great bonfire with
small and fair shadows leaping and dancing madly
all about it.
      -At the head of this otherworldly party my eyes
delighted upon, and yet cowered before, the magnificent
visage of a grand Lady.
...a Lady with a shining star upon her pale brow...
Softly clad in the emeralds of Spring and the deep
russets of Autumn...dew drops for diamonds ensnared
upon fine, glistening cobwebs, catching the flickering
fire-light and casting out shards of rainbows around her
...caught upon her fair hair, like a net of shining silver.

       For behold, the Queen of all seasons, of all nature
...the proud and glorious Queen of Faery!
And beside her stood her dark and terrible consort,
the Lord of the Hunt, with his great horn strapped
at his side...ever at the ready.

    In that frozen moment seconds ticked by as though
mere grains of sand falling through a great hourglass,
caught in slow-motion.
  -The fair and wicked shapes about the bonfire,
a mockery of Life and her charge.

    My eyes surely must have been dazzled
for in that unnatural moment I thought I did spy
delicate sparkling wings upon those mischievous
dancing and prancing sprites before the fire
...like Spirits of Nature frolicking in life once more...
      And their Lord...a magnificent rack of antlers
sat upon his dark and heavy brow...

    Suddenly time caught up to me, as though a lame
partner in a game of tag...
-I blinked, for the light from the great bonfire was too
brilliant against the utter dark of the night surrounding it.

        And just then, the glorious Queen turned her
sparkling eye to mine, most knowingly...and letting
forth a peal of tinkling laughter, once more this night,
for the last time, all light and sound vanished!

     Now I am lost...for I have been led far and astray from home
...to I know not where.    ~