They took my love, when he went to them
freely and with gladness, and they kept him
with promises and a child-bride’s embrace,
though never will they acknowledge him
as other than what he and I have always been.
They will take my love, and bury him.

They tore my children, one by one,
from my arms, from my mothering breast
where they were fed, and they cast my kin
far from our home, while I lay restrained
as the warriors held me and I raged.
They will take my love, and bury him.

They rule the worlds, or so they believe
and tonight they have named me honored guest,
tonight they will greet me, flatter me,
then burn my flesh like the walls of my stead
as my consort cries out and wakes from sleep.
They will take my love, and bury him.

They would not give up what the way of things
demands of us all, and so my love took that life
with another’s hands and the luck of deceit,
sacrificed and sent to Helheim, and for that
they will cast him down and slay his son.
They will take my love, and bury him.

And I must wait here without him, to rule alone
this land, our folk, our blood, our kith and kin
while he pays the price for another’s guilt.
My heart aches as if the life had left it,
and I seethe as the days go by, one by one.
They have taken my love, and buried me with him.

(Trickster My Beloved is available from Asphodel Press.)