The Broken Crown

Broken Crown

When she came to the river to weep,
it was not dark, it was not night.
When she came to the river to sleep
the forest thundered with deafening white noise.

When she came to rest, world-wounded
the wild deer offered her back as pillow.
When she came to rest, being-pounded,
she balled herself small, fallen willow all about her.

When the time was ended, the blackness had come to call,
she carved the deer from the land, sinking in the silence of it's bones.
When the time was ended, she said nothing at all,
her body she threw into the lake, drifting, drowned, alone