CAER SIDHE
Pagan Poetry
CAER SIDHE
We recognise each other from a time lost in the past,
Now faded like an ancient book that’s just outside our grasp.
I knew you then, half human, the other half of Fae,
Who sang just like the changeling that stole my heart away.
Remembering, remembering, I can’t remember when:
The time when we were trembling and half-gone round the bend.
The noise was oh so deafening, like thunder from the sky,
And shattered almost everything, including you and I.
What is this race, not from this place, that tramples on the earth,
With no respect for anyone, that kills the child at birth?
We flew into the hinterland to escape torment and pain;
I loved you more than anything, you stole my heart away.
We ran for all eternity, traveling through space and time;
We’re still running from the absurdity that poisoned hearts and minds.
Our skin became invisible as we dissolved into the woods,
So desperately determined to reclaim our lost childhoods.
Where mythology and memory made love upon the hill,
And only those who kissed the goat remembered Jack and Jill.
Onward toward Caer Sidhe as our souls became a flame,
Of dancing light beyond twilight, that whispers out her name.
Oh Mabily, oh Mabily, on toward the castle’s keep,
You hide away so quietly, yet still we hear you weep.
When finally, we reached the mound, exhausted from the fight,
We pay the God below the sod and wait until midnight.
Then hear the sound of flutes and song, ascending from the ground;
As in a dream, we sing along and dance and jump around.
A light that’s dimmed, blown by the wind, flickers in our eyes,
Until everything disintegrates, dissolving our disguise.
She waits for us, barely alive, holding something in her arms,
That makes a cry so haunting as to shatter magic charms.
“Take her from me, out of this realm, back to the world of men.
Release her in the apple grove, never to return again.”
She will call all of her Cailleachs and cast the brightest spell,
To banish them to Gehenna and send them back to hell.
Now run as fast as Lugus; leave me alone to fill my cup,
With henbane and datura, mandrake and buttercups.
Síofra, sweet Síofra, sing aloud your wailing call,
To banish everything unclean, impure, unsound, untrue.
That we may return together, hand in hand on eagle’s wing,
To sing from our hearts the songs of trance and make our offerings.
You who now live in the tree and hide atop the highest branch,
Who banished all the misery as you sang your gleeful chants.
So, if you wander in the woods and hear her lulling cry,
Fall to your knees in memories of long-lost days passed by.
For we have the blood of Mabily that’s running through our veins,
That tears and claws from Caer Sidhe and breaks the master’s chains.
Some may call her banshee, while others may call her wraith,
Yet we know her as the Queen of Fae, and she holds us in her grace.
