Princess Eloise #2 - Orphans

A clearing in the Forest Grim
Where stands an ancient stone-built forge
Ev'ning has silenced the anvil's ring
And the Smithy has paused
To feed the boy, the hungry one
His only precious foundling son
'Smithy tell me once again
The tale of the heartless King'
Smithy knew he'd not restrain
The boy's incessant questioning

'The Queen that bore poor Eloise
Was Queen no more that day
The new Queen ruled in her stead
With scarce a month's delay
In scarce a year a Prince was born
Upon the date of his sister's birth
Eloise to supplant
Much to her father's mirth

Yet the Royal Advocate
Refused to be complicit
'Eloise must take the throne
The law is quite explicit''
How she lived these ten long years
Eloise without her mother
How many are the silent tears ...'
He tailed off to a mutter

He paused and listened - and without
A strange uncommon din
A muttering a whiffling
The crying of a little thing
A snuffling a sniffling
A silence fell o'er everything
The Smith strode out into the night
The boy sat still, eyes wide with fright

Waiting in the firelight
Without the window darkest night
Then suddenly the Smith returned
Anger in his dark eyes burned
'Take care of this I must away
Look not for me until the day'
Though in haste he paused a beat
And placed a bag at his feet

Within the Smithy's bag a pair
Of chestnut eyes that constant stare
Needle claws on each black paw
A bundle of bear rolls on the floor
Thus came Bruin to the pair
Thus started the kinship of boy and his bear
The Smithy smiled and understood
For he was kind and he was good

He returned at break of day
What he had done he would not say
He wearily smiled at the sleepy head
And to the boy he gravely said
'Boy you take good care of him
An orphan child of the Forest Grim
For what we give we shall receive
When the pain of others we relieve'

Westering Lights

Dusky evening shadow falls
Bleaching the sky - blue aqua - blue powder - blue black
Westering gulls intent on the sea - them as went out turning back
Lit bronze by the high setting light
And the white moon rides forth on a smudge of grey mist
Soon to be joined by the stars of the night

Princess Eloise #1 - Bitter Kingdom

Nobility and chivalry
A dim and distant memory
A hollow King and his barren Queen
Frustrated posterity
Nine months of hope had come to this
Princess Eloise
Then the Queen had breathed her last
Her husband to displease
He raged against his blighted life
He raged and cursed his absent wife
He raged against the little one
'But that she had been a son'
He raged against poor Eloise
Doomed nevermore her King to please

Without the wall another cry
A mother worthy of the name
New-bereaved and mourning
Sobbing cries her grief proclaim
Her husband murdered in the gutter
Naught but anguish will she utter
And her baby stole away
A mean and petty debt to pay
Forsaking town and house and home
And all that once she called her own
Empty handed to the Forest Grim
She flees reciting the names of him
Him that's dead and him that's stole
And none will dare to her console

The King looked down upon her plight
From a window atop a flight
Of stairs within the castle dark
He blindly stared and did not mark
How she stumbles, weeps and grieves
How she passes out of sight
Enfolded by the forest leaves
Swallowed by the bitter night
Self-pity leaves no room for grace
Upon the monarch's stony face
Eloise must keep her peace
And always keep an eye that's dry
In a castle such as this
The hated child may not cry

DCI (TV)

It starts ...

Righteous retribution seeking its recipient
Navigates a labyrinth of bloody guilt and innocence
Seeking out the malefact
Detecting ev'ry miscreant
Upon the business of the Queen
Detective on the scene

Should he visit you
There's no telling what he'll do
He'll decide the relevance
Don't you be a hinderance
He will ask the questions
Until he's good and through

He will bully and berate
Always 'Just one more thing'
The finger of unfriendly fate
To torture you my poor thing
Until the truth is shaken free
Then perhaps he'll let us be

Returning whence he'd come
Until another killing's done
And again the Queen has need
Of someone to detect the deed ...

The King and the Machine

The Royal Commission

In the town there was a crown 
And the man who wore it 
Decreed that all should scrape and bow 
When e'er they saw it 

Around his neck a golden chain
Upon it hung the Stone of State
His regal power absolute
His the right to dominate

In the town there was a throne 
And he that sat thereon 
Reserved the right to rule despite 
The weight of the unknown 

The weight of the unknown 
Bore most heavily upon 
The one that sat upon the throne 
That most awful regal one 

The king decreed discovery 
Of the hid foundation 
The arcane philosophy 
That underpins creation

That never may there come to be 
In that or any nation 
One more erudite than he 
In comprehension of causation 

The king commissioned a machine 
Styled the Grand Chronologer 
That the future may be seen 
By the Court Technologer


The Grand Chronologer

Behold the Court Technologer 
His books machines and tools 
His calipers and quadrants 
His scribers and his rules 

All contrived most cunningly 
None more fastidious than he 
He laboured with precision 
With scarce an intermission 

'Behold the Grand Chronologer 
Wheel and gear and Golden Winder 
Orbits tangents radians sines 
Cogs and hands, keys and splines 
The quintessentiality 
Defining all reality ...

Behold my lord the ease with which 
The future now may be discerned' 
With a sniff and bow and twitch 
To the great machine he turned  

As it gravely whirred and spun 
The disk of the moon covered the sun 
Comets appeared and seasons and years 
We're predicted and counted by elegant gears 

Arcane the prestidigitation 
Algebraic the application


At the Gates

Grim tidings spread throughout the town
Invaders from the farthest shore
Cast a shadow 'cross the land
The evil threat of war

A herald barked the proclamation
A silent crowd, broad and great
With a morbid fascination
Gathered for to learn their fate

'Our enemy is at the gates
A curse on those who will not fight'
The King addressed the restless crowd
Gathered in the night

'I declare these terms for peace
Nothing less than slavery'
The crowd let out an angry shout
And the King had won the day

The King now sat in conference
With the Court Technologer
Configuring the Panel Stops
On the Great Chronologer

Initiation initiated
The King's frustration soon frustrated
The Propitious Date was dated
Fate of the Kingdom now was fated

The Enemy Ambassador
Narrowly escaping murder
Dishonoured in despite of law
With word of almost certain war
Hurries from the angry town
As sudden rain comes teeming down

In his hand The Letter
Terms, a rendezvous
A date on which to parley
'Neath the Ancient Yew


The Parley

The King at the head of his forces
Draws near to the Parley Place
In the centre of The Forest
A knowing smile upon his face

Waiting in The Clearing
Beneath the Ancient Yew
(At the time determined
The time to die or do
That the Grand Chronologer
Selected as it marked the card)
He spies his foe the Crystal Queen
Surrounded by her Bodyguard

The King and Queen are eye to eye
He turns and glances to the sky
A shadow passes 'cross the sun
Foretold Eclipse has now begun

He signals to his Hidden Men
Hidden days before, and then
Swords in hand - their edges keen
They fall upon the Crystal Queen

Shocked by darkness unforeseen
Her Bodyguard forsakes the Queen
They turn to run and do not fight
Throw down their swords and take to flight

The King allows them on their way
He hunts now for a different prey
The object of his Covert Scheme
The capture of the Crystal Queen


Treason

The Crystal Queen is fallen
Imprisoned in despair
An iron cage affords no rest
No comfort for the fair

The King would have her dead and gone
And yet he has a care
To discover what he may
Before she dance on air

The Court Technologer is sent
To take the Queen's interrogation
The King on other work is bent
Best left to imagination

Morning noon and night they meet
The Queen and her Inquisitor
Days pass by and he becomes
More than just a visitor

Of all his fears the greatest one
That it might be known and seen
That his heart is lost and gone
And he loves the Queen

Meantime the King sought for himself
Another source of information
And taught himself the secrets of
Mechanical Prognostication

He set the Panel Stops and then
Waited for the Great Machine
To tell him where and tell him when
He might destroy the force of the Queen

The King called the Technologer
They met at the Chronologer
It displayed a time and date
As if it read the Book of Fate

As though it heard from Fate's own mouth
It displayed the West and South
It knew when to strike the blow
It told the King where he must go

The Technologer turned white
The King discerned his sorry plight
'Guards, arrest this Vile Traitor'
Shouts the King, and moments later

Technologer in iron cage
The King before him spitting rage
'You dare to choose to serve another
Rot and die then with your lover'

The King stormed out of the stony cell
Two cages sat in the dark and grime
The Queen and Technologer as well
Wept, held hands and bided their time


The Campaign

The King rode forth to Conquest
Ever close at hand
Prediction of The Chronologer
As he passed to a foreign land

The King and his weary band of men
Driven by obsessive wrath
Long now since they ventured forth
Strange the land and long the path

The Compass was consulted
The Date and Day drew nigh at last
The King pitched tent and waited
And the die was cast

A misty mass of warriors
Within the gloom without The Glen
Draws near the King and followers
Draws ever near and then

They part and ope' a corridor
For their Youthful Laird
He throws a Gauntlet to the ground
In hand a weapon bared

Laird and King now locked within
Trial by Lethal Combat
Their soldiers - speechless witnessing
Challenger & Autocrat 

They thrust and parried
Lunged and harried
Ever circulating
Weapons flashed
Sparked and crashed
Shreiking grinding grating
On the King's Ignoble Sword
Hidden poison waiting

First Blood to the Challenger!
A Strike not deep nor broad
Yet see the King reaching in
To parry with his sword

It barely nicks the flawless cheek
Of the Youthful Laird
But blood drains from his face and heart
A heavy gasp is heard

The Youthful Laird sinks to his knees
And raises Lamentation
The King retires a pace or two
Awaiting life's cessation

'Hear my story stars above
Hear my tale you earth
Hear a tale of evil deeds
Hear a tale of Noble Birth
Hear how I was dispossessed
Mark this tragic scene
The murder of the noblest
The Prince of the Crystal Queen
Where my Father here to fight
Would but that he had not been killed
Then would there be an end to night
And evil would be stilled
Should any doubt my Royal Right
Should any doubt my fate
Let them look but once upon
The One True Stone of State' 

The Youthful Laird fell back upon
The heather, holding fastly on
To a stone strung from a cord
The soldiers of the gathered horde
Stepped closer and the King's most trusted
Chieftan, with an air disgusted
Took stone and made examination
Then raised excited Proclamation

'The Stone of State this is this is
I saw it in my far-off youth
I see it once again and I
Give my testament of truth ...

The stone worn by our Upstart King
Worn ever 'neath his stinking vest
Never have I seen that thing
Hidden next' his coward chest ...

Yet I do swear and aver
That what I say is true
The Stone of State is what I hold
I show it now to all of you'

The Aged Chief held up the stone
The King's own troop were restive grown
They turned to challenge him alone
To no avail - the King had flown



Vendetta

Destroy the Machine
Dispose of the Queen
Galloping hoofbeats
Commanded the King

Technologer too
Must be made to pay
The hoofbeats insisted 
As night turned to day

Propitious the Day
Picked by The Machine
Propitious for someone
Just not for him

His rage so intense
It would not depart
Thirst for revenge
Had swallowed his heart 



Revelation

'When a task is vital
One does not delegate'
Spat The King most darkly
Arranging the fate

Of Queen and Technologer
At the end of a rope
Anticipating naught but doom
The two of them bereft of hope

But suddenly a rush of men
Assails the execution hall
At their head the Youthful Laird
Who did not die at all

(The Ancient Grizzled Warrior
Who identified the stone
Administered an antidote
That none but he had known

Ever kept to hand
In case of Royal Accident
Now applied it saves us from
Embarrasing predicament)

The Laird bows low before his Queen
Before his Mother too
She graciously bids him to stand
Invites him now to view

The face of the Technologer
The boy turns white once more
And kneels before his father
On the stony floor

He bows his head and offers
The One True Stone of State
The Crystal King takes it from him
And, standing next' his mate

Lifts up his son the Crystal Prince
And all there - bar the Upstart King
Affirm their humble loyalty
With oaths and tears and rejoicing

Thus the rule of the Upstart King
Ended many years ago
If you doubt my true account
Then I bid you go

See the ruined building
Chronologer disused within
Abandoned now its job is done
The Conquest of the Upstart King



The Derelict

I visited the broken shell

Chronolger hid deep within

And thought I heard a stirring

Of something softly spinning

An air of unquiet slumbering

Of something fell beginning

As though the episodes of yore

Upon dark winds were winging ...

 

Sell Me Another

Peroni Nastro Azzurro
Written round the glass so
I must turn it to read it 'o

Tradizione e naturalita
Yellow and sparkling
Its primary feature

Birra Superiore
The level in my glass
Becoming inferiore

Dal 1846
Until ten thirty six
Too late my drinks to mix

Another Peroni?
Yes but only
In a branded glass
Otherwise I think I'll pass ...