To My Faery Lover
OH, WOULD THAT WE were many things,
My golden-shining love and I;
Bright-flashing scales, a pair of wings
That draw the moonlight down the sky,
Two hazel trees beside the stream
Wherein our fruit in autumn drop,
A trout, a stag, a wild swan’s dream,
An eagle cry from mountaintop.
For we have both been many things:
A thousand lifetimes we have known
Each other, and our love yet sings.
But there is more that I would own.
Oh, would that we could naked run
Through forests deep and forests fair,
Our breasts laid open to the sun,
Our flesh caressed by summer’s air,
And in some hidden, leafy glen
My striving body you would take;
Impale me on your lust and then
Me Queen of Daybreak you would make.
And we would dance and we would sing,
And we in passion’s fist would cry;
Loud with our love the woods would ring,
If we were lovers, you and I.
If we were lovers, I and you,
I would cast off all mortal ills
And you would take me, Shining Lugh,
To feast within the hollow hills.
For the world of men is filled with tears
And swift the night of science falls
And I would leave these tears and fears
To dance with you in Danu’s halls,
So let us cast our cares away
And live like bright stars in the sky,
Dance dream-clad till the break of day,
For we are lovers, you and I.
—Emily Desmond
Class 4a, Cross and Passion School