September 26, 2011

Mountain maid, maiden mount — a song

by Eric Rosenbloom
copyright 2011

A wisp of a thing, a thought on the air
That often it seems she isn’t there
A touch of moisture, a stir in the breeze
You see her passing in the leaves of trees

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

She rises and darkens in the mountain’s arms
Colors with passion and furious alarms
The dizzying heights now fill her with dread
Now longing that knows no rest, no bed

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

His grip is tight, she cannot fly
From fate and this his cruel eye
To swoon upon his hardened crags
And croon his hills and downy legs

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

He crouches beneath her, dark in her dark
To know the journey he can’t embark
In his craggy rocks and clinging firs
That are in her, washed by all that’s hers

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

All that she has and strained to hold
Bursts forth — she is of a sudden old
Her color fades as her life runs down
The rocks and trees that ring his crown

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

The waters gather and a river born
Of a clash divine, of a spirit torn
And the sun now shines and the valley sings
And the river means so many things

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds

The ocean calls his wandering daughter
To lose herself in his circling water
While the mountain looms with a fiery glare
And calls forth another maid who was fair

The birds gather seeds
And people their deeds