Saturday, June 30, 2018

20180630.0430

Behind, they bore, locked in a cage
The children on whom an outrage
Had often been done
Since Scald was begun--
And ne’er would that hurt be assuaged.

Friday, June 29, 2018

20180629.0430

Of skin orange, and of hair
Swept badly to shield a pate bare,
And with hands too small
To build up a wall,
They pressed on, unable to care.

Thursday, June 28, 2018

20180628.0430

The bodyguard still ranged around,
Ranks spread to cover more ground
And forestall a threat
They could not see yet--
They knew that stern threats would abound.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

20180627.0430

Boldly on, Scald’s leader came,
Upon whom had many heaped blame
For ruin and wrack
And an utter lack
Of sympathy, and, too, of shame.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

20180626.0430

Steeling herself, she pressed on,
Though she to go had not yet long,
For Scald’s leader came down
And made to strike the town
Directly, not sending the throng.

Monday, June 25, 2018

20180625.0430

Erdewyn yet felt fatigue
From how her the fights had beleagued,
So she had need
Of her judgment’s speed
To end her town’s being besieged.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

20180624.0430

Still, she recalled what she knew
And worked to her passion subdue.
Ire in a fight
Can offer great might,
But it can throw all skill askew.

Saturday, June 23, 2018

20180623.0430

Heartless, she clearly was not,
Else she’d not by him have been taught;
It was at great price
She’d her task reprise,
And in her, her heart burned hot.

Friday, June 22, 2018

20180622.0430

After a moment, she went
Onward, as she had her sent.
She could well come back
After her attack
If in it she’d not her life spent.

Thursday, June 21, 2018

20180621.0430

Yet she could not pause for the rites
That followed after many fights,
Whether with blade
Or ‘gainst age’s fade;
She had other goals in her sight.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

20180620.0430

Seeing it, she grew enraged,
Thinking his death had been staged
By those she approached
And who had encroached
On the town where she’d been assuaged.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

20180619.0430

Erdewyn’s heart missed its time
As she came upon the last sign
That her old master,
The stern Oðoæster,
Would make, who was great in his prime.

Monday, June 18, 2018

20180618.0430

And what the world does with a corpse
Had already begun its course,
And into the soil
The world’s long small toil
Had begun his body to force.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

20180617.0430

No peace in his visage was seen,
No relic of his old glance keen,
No strength of his arm
That had done much harm
Still showed where it had once been.

Saturday, June 16, 2018

20180616.0430

Death on his body had told,
Revealing him to have been old
And wounded much,
As well befits such
A person, one who had been bold.

Friday, June 15, 2018

20180615.0430

On swift, silent feet, she pressed on
Where not long before, one had gone.
He had passed ahead,
And she found him, dead,
Under whom she’d studied long.

Thursday, June 14, 2018

20180614.0430

She valiantly went on ahead
To face the one who made deep dread
On others descend;
She wanted to end
The threat by leaving Scald’s leader dead.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

20180613.0430

Erdewyn made her way out
Towards the Scald, went on without
Comfort or aid
To conduct her raid;
Alone, she’d proceed, lacking doubt.

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

20180612.0430

Erdewyn had such a plan
Once she knew how the Scald began,
Thought to use the fears
Of fighters to near
Their leader, and so end the band.

Monday, June 11, 2018

20180611.0430

Yet calling a thing false won’t make
That thing, if true, become a fake,
And if it be proved
And the speaker not moved,
Then some stronger measures will take.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

20180610.0430

Many are they who will say
That what disagrees, them betrays,
And such will then rake
With the words “lie” and “fake,”
Maligning them many a day.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

20180609.0430

When leaders work on people’s fears,
And it happens then that threat nears,
How people then act
May prove a foul fact
For one who nobody else hears.

Friday, June 8, 2018

20180608.0430

But even in lies is there truth,
As in the obscene, there is couth,
And in the new telling
She saw to the felling
Of Scald’s leader--absent of ruth.

Thursday, June 7, 2018

20180607.0430

Nor ought it to be well said
That Erdewyn was by their words led
To a truth perceived
From knowledge received
By those who spoke from hate and from dread.

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

20180606.0430

Unlikely was it to atone
That the prisoners made the things known
They said in that time.
They’d long lived in crime
And likely sought to live alone.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

20180605.0430

In such ways did the reports run
From prisoners once they’d begun.
Seeing some die
Had opened an eye
Or two--also mouths more than one.

Monday, June 4, 2018

20180604.0430

Unearthly force did that one wield
Who led the Scald, which forced to yield
They who, in the past,
Had stood firm and fast,
Or else from them skin and flesh peeled.

Sunday, June 3, 2018

20180603.0430

For some to approach had once dared,
And it was well known how they fared;
Drained and discarded,
Their lives disregarded,
Their corpses left all the Scald scared.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

20180602.0430

The Scald’s leader also remained,
Who had across years many pained.
They had been in fear
And had not drawn near,
And so they their lives had retained.

Friday, June 1, 2018

20180601.0430

Better equipped the bodyguard was
Than Scald’s rank and file because
The guard did them drive
Who would stay alive;
They fought or were chewed by death’s jaws.