Queen Mab




This is not the work of winter alone: Queen Mab has been loose in the night.
The horses’ manes will be atrocious!
Slender branches strew the lanes: the old ash tree must be suspected of complicity, for it has lost but twigs.
One unbroken piece of moon is left wedged in morning sky; behind dull cloud stripes of blue and pink fuzz like flannelette.
Is she sleeping now?

Our ribs hold anxious beats.

Of what does she dream?

The more we stare at the sky, the more the cirrostratus thickens.
In the thin fall of rain a whisper: of what do you dream? 





Comments

Kittie Howard said…
I'm going to take the upbeat approach and assume Queen Mab is the faerie in Romeo and Juliet and is just making mischief. Of what does she dream? Beneath the hubris is love.

Sorry I haven't visited in a while. It's been really hectic but in a routine of sorts now. Have a great weekend!
12 December 2014 at 21:08
Dixie@dcrelief said…
That's interesting.
12 December 2014 at 22:11
Lisa Southard said…
I don't get around as much as I should, Kittie, so I apologise too. Queen Mab is best known for her Shakespearean appearance: 'This is that very Mab
That plaits the manes of horses in the night,
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes'
She has other literary roles too- often she is a creator of dreams, and this is what I was thinking of, vaguely, that here I am making up dreams for her because it's easier than thinking about my own. Caught myself being a nervy procrastinator!
But beneath the hubris, I agree, there is love :-)
12 December 2014 at 23:11
Lisa Southard said…
I'm not sure how famous Queen Mab is, so I have no idea how much sense this post will make to everyone- am spending the weekend hanging out with grandchildren so will doubtless return less cerebral and more fun :-)
12 December 2014 at 23:17
Geo. said…
I like this poem, Lisa. I know Mab is the midwife of dreams but she enters them by people's noses. That can't be sanitary. Most of us elementals prefer less glamorous work and quiet life in a hollow hill.
13 December 2014 at 08:37
Lisa Southard said…
I think she was influenced by the Egyptians- I'd rather work by word power from that quiet hollow hill. I don't bake elflocks either... Luckily I'm still falling out of trees so I know sense hasn't quite tamed me :-)
13 December 2014 at 10:27
Suze said…
'One unbroken piece of moon is left wedged in morning sky'

So bracingly immediate. I really, truly love it.
13 December 2014 at 18:42
Lisa Southard said…
Thank you Suze :-) Coffee, one day, for us! Wonder what the weather will do that day?
14 December 2014 at 23:02
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