Two amber gems embedded in the flame
Five points of cinder, perfect onyx ink
Enfolding under-silk, unblemished shame
Chest trembling with breath, rise, hold, and sink
A question, whether blood or tears to drink
The fox smoothed down his fur and flexed his claws
A ray of sun through mist, pale parted jaws
Ahead of Khazemil the ghost forms broke
Wide tawny rolling oceans caught the light
Behind, the village finally awoke
Old faces fast to flutter out despite
Long distant ages spent to earn their right
Those timeless murmurs met the sullen fox
Who only saw a world of golden stalks
"So stoic like his father was before!"
The creaking, trailing voice split hairline cracks—
"He says 'nothing to learn,' but who needs more?"
—and widened them quite gently with an ax.
"What else? Hah! Choosing silver over flax!"
"Be quiet, ma, his ears are turned towards us."
"But I'm the one who made the robe! Such fuss."
And turning, Khazemil saw in array
Each elder fox, the snowy, red, and tan
Each older son, their ear-tips not yet gray
His father stood in front as it began
Both vicious arms outstretched to fullest span
Aloft a tunic cut for one so lithe
And gleaming in the other paw a scythe
"For youth, for life, we long delay this time
We see the truth and hide it from the pure
'Thus passing, from sublime to seek sublime'
Proverbial; the words begin to blur,
But 'life anew is living to endure.'"
Emotion never strayed into the speech
And neither fox could o'er the chasm reach
Cold shot through Khazemil, touching the blade
Life burst through Khazemil, and then the day
As wisps of dreams so swiftly die waylaid
As drifting smoke in wind is torn away
The farm, the field, the life fled fast astray
Within his chest heartbeat, heartbeat, heartbeat
"My head? My robe! My mind is incomplete!"
"'To sleep, goodnight, tomorrow just the same!'
What does it mean? Today I shed the frost
That tinges youth who look to win a name
Now scythe in paw, the recollection lost
To hear 'to sleep, tomorrow,' what a cost!
My trouble hides in midnight, dusk to dawn
My life is lost in daylight, slipping, gone."
❦