Where love was gone
the dry world sighed for what was lost
and the maiden left her couch to see:
Nothing bloomed in the garden
and no tree bore fruit.
The air had no birdsong and
rain would not fall.
She would find love and return.
What she can't take with her
will drop onto the path:
the cloak of invulnerability,
her shining armor,
her girdle of confidence,
her many jewels,
her sword of discerning,
the words of power--
gone.
The skin unwound from her flesh,
the fat rendered in the heat,
the nerves exposed and made
into a garland for a holy tree.
Her bones walked into
the land of the dead
to find her love.
