Rose escaped,
flailing frantically, madly, beyond her strength,
beyond the sorrel's but saving it, too, for
its loyalty and its beauty, its life, and
raced down hill toward cold waters
with the sea wind cold in her face and
the brightness of over-sea air driving tears into
her fright-glazed eyes.
She was
never the same.
Dreaming day
and night of masked shamans weaving capes and bodices
of her colorful fate, of bludgeons
striking from behind, of tall stark-eyed priestesses
sacrificed to their people however
they might long to lead them.
The bright day
shattered with the sound of breaking glass.
Speculum,
speculum, spinning like
a flower on its stalk rattling in
the winds of day and time and desire speculum,
speculum, exploding in deep
and vivid shards, scarfs, of
ending
and surcease.