July 14, 2018 by Mike Madden

Summer Madness

One balmy day
I chanced upon a cuckoo sage,
A cloven creature none too bright
To speak in wondrous verse.
He fabled me with tales of love and power.
He bade me follow a starry path
And seek young Jasmine, fair of face,
Yet wanton in her thunderous desires.
On finding her she’d join with me
To court a king in ermine robes
And underneath he’d wear a demon charm.
Then three as one we’d while away
The hours until darkness came
To cast our fates upon a treasured quest.
To roam the lands past trees agape,
Where stood the fossils of a thousand haggard ravens.
A barbarous thane does guard the gate
To a spartan land, ill gotten due to murderous winds,
That snatch your very breath with ease,
Yet speak in riddles echoed in a canyon filled with yellow blood.
Then stripped of wealth we three could laugh,
And note the ravages of dawn,
For jewels greater than the promised orb
Await the victor from the vanquished knight.
But warily must tread the three of winged feet,
For they must then become the sacrifice
Of wizzards with a golden rod,
Who jaunted, sunk in sullen rage.
So once the questlings return home
To welcome fires and fatted beasts,
The teller can but ponder this;
A peaceling lives for many things,
But raucous Jasmine and her kingly man
Can never hope to shimmer in his light.
So when this madness stifles you,
And all you wish is to potter with the mundane cowries of your mind,
Pray stay at home on balmy days,
And be not slow to chide a cuckoo sage.