Winter, a Poem

In winter, near a graveyard, a sound may appear

in St. Mary's Vale, a sound that sounds like horse-drawn

carriage, yet there is no horse in sight. The sound flickers,

and sometimes disappears, yet continues on

as if the horses were reluctant and prodded on. Yet

it is said that sometimes hearers have seen a woman

who walks with open mouth towards any nearby, and

that the sound of horse-carriage is that of her

footsteps, which sound so,. Many have mentioned a sight of her

near the graveyards, yet fled without their

companions. Her eyes are said to gaze darkly,

and her face is a wintry white, like Scottish mounts

seen by a mountain-climber at nightfall, near

their zenith. Some have said that she holds a knife

red, yet others have not, and no-one can agree

on what she does with this knife. In her open mouth

are white teeth, and her step is not slow,

yet is patient and formal, as a courtier's manners

slowed him as the monarch arrived. A fragment

of a written letter has been found in a cottage nearby,

and reads, "winter, cold as her lies, red glows the

sovereign flame of the sun, when she appears, she

who is often dressed in clothes of mourning, yet

is secret concubine of all the King's court," and no more

for there the letter leaves off. Some have speculated

that it was her husband, yet it is only speculation,

isn't it? The way she emerges from the graveyard,

with her knife, only during the winter, it may be

that she died first during the winter, frozen and estranged.