WIGHT, LONELY WEEP THOU

WIGHT, LONELY WEEP THOU, by Oliver Smith

Old Grim blew in on a black winter gale,

crows at his shoulder, the wolves at his heel.
Beasts of the snow followed over the fields;
they left trees like bones and rivers of tears,
the land hidden between fog and dead years.

The white wolf of winter hungered for him;
the white wolf of winter chased after Grim.
He paced through the village so evil and thin,
Grim’s game seemed run as he came crawling in.
But cunning Grim came
and called on his kin.

We opened our graves and hid him within;

led him away from the ice and the wolves
put him under soil, safe under the stones;
down in the ground with our ancestors’ bones.
Deep in the tomb on Barrow Hill we shivered

in spite of the  low, red fire that flickered,
while the wolf up above howled as he ran
around the cold world to catch the bright sun,
leaving  ice miles thick and bones by the ton.
Our forefathers died
defending the land:

they stood against wolves with blades in their hands.

We hid in the ground with cunning old Grim,
so hard in our hearts and weak in our sin.
We lived in the dark on cadaverous flesh,
rather than die with the brave and the blessed.

When the wolves went there was nobody left..
Grim crawled away on the first day of spring
and left us between the dead and the  living.
Cursed and corrupted, thin ghosts in the dusk;
our souls turned to shade,
our swords left to rust.

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Oliver is inspired by the landscapes of Max Ernst, by frenzied rocks towering in the air above the silent
swamp, by the strange poetry of machines, by something hidden in the nothing
His poetry has appeared in ‘Abyss & Apex’, ‘Liminality’, ‘Rivet’, ‘Strange Horizons’, and ‘Sylvia Magazine’.
His poem ‘Better Living through Witchcraft’ was awarded first place in the BSFS 2019 competition and
‘Lost Palace, Lighted Tracks’, which appeared in ‘Eye to the Telescope’ 32, was nominated for the 2020
Pushcart Prize. In 2020 Oliver was awarded a PhD in Literary and Critical Studies by the University of
Gloucestershire.
His website is at https://oliversimonsmithwriter.wordpress.com/