Heads & Beregond

[written_leaves]

Slaying
And guarding in the same blow.

Meanwhile, things were not going well over in Minas Tirith - one verse for the horrifying items catapulted in, one for my favorite brave Gondorian soldier who was dealing with his Lord's insanity. Beregond is interesting in that it is written as a layered piece, two poems in one.

Heads

Heads
Over the wall.
We who were braced for
Weapons and fires of the East,
Weep with horror
For these missiles
that do not
Burn.

Hands
That dishonored our
Brothers and our kin will
Reap the despair they have sown,
Yes, they will reap it
In full and they will
know our
Fury.

-
Beregond

This one is a two-in-one piece - you may read it as a whole, then read it again with only the shorter lines.

My Lord
Faramir lies feverish, soaked with fuel
He burns
With fever, calls for his father -
A son
Longing for his father's approval, but on whom
God had mercy,
Bestowing him with great gifts of
His own.
My guard's honor and duty rage in my
Heart,
Warring between orders and knowing
His flesh
Is almost sacred, protected at all cost.
A consuming
Fear, a choice that is no choice;
Madness
That our own should be
Driving
Us asunder. What is loyalty?
The mind
Observes the letter of the law but
The soul
Cleaves to what is right.
Apart
From this what can I do?
Double-edged
My blade, in his service
Slaying
And guarding in the same blow.

-