Mother’s Rest

A tale of The Gnarled Grotesquery

Part 2

Amongst thistle thorned, brushed ferns waving woolen skirts passage

Save for the Greater Light of Lunar luminescence, breaking wooded canopy

All is cast in hues of darkening dread, till from ancient trunk retrieved

Cached rations, spare gathered nuts, pitiful berries, dense bread, a torch

Brilliant sparks, striking metaled blade, shattering nights solemnity

Fire given birth to oiled wooded brand, wielded as weapon

Back the darkness, she motions, the night alive with owls calls

Insectoid chatter rising and falling to predatory superiority

Splashing, streams near familiar ground, oaks paired near cliffs end

Turn left at the boulder to the pass, distant baying growing in volume

Head turned, whipped to rear, hearing focused, heightened senses

“Was yonder breaking branch mine own?” Shaken, the mother moves

Clutched to bosom breast, sacred text shielded, flesh protection

Breath coming ragged, near hidden caverns yawning portal

Doused, hissed steam escaping, waterskin emptied, embers silenced

Neath’ cracked creche she slips, barely wide enough even when starved

Firelight coming into focus, a hidden niche with oaken door

Hemp rope strung, hinging makeshift portal traversable, within a mirror of the Old Mother

Two rocking chairs, one adorned with daughters glory, braided beauty, radiant smile

Fire blazes, stewpot boils, all is at ease, the secret held ages long preserved

Hounds bray, ever nearer, the dragons men approach, the inquisition

“Garb ye in cloak, breeches, with leather boot, satchel, supplies,

Take ye the sacred secrets of Mother’s rest, bind to thigh, hidden

Now enshroud in cloak and make haste, a ship waits in the east”

Cheek caressed with Mothers love, tears mingled the daughter flees

Firelight flickers as caverns alternate exit draw near, a humming heard

A shattered scream pierces the night, smoke perfuming the air

“Mother’s mother, and mine own lost in a night”