Southgate Chronicles can be found here



Echo


fire in the form of rain
i stood there. til my skin was red

"wheres the mage?"
"she's left"
and there i stood in the grey withering breezeless cold forest
burning like a phoenix in its center

i stood there
with the answer to 1000 questions

"why"

then

i thought i saw your ghost pass through the trees
so i followed it
you'd dropped something
something small
unimportant
not enough to leave a trail
you didn't look
nor did you see
so i went over to it
held it softly full of joy
fleeting was that moment
as it turned cold
a rustle in the wind
woke the dream in darkness
and parted leaves to let in light

nothing moved forward
this is just a piece of solidified time
it cant be carried in to the future
nor does it mark the past
so i laid it back down

"where has the mage gone?"
"that is not what you need to seek.
she left this for you.
it is yours to choose,
be ever wise
it is yours to leave,
be ever strong
it is yours to remember,
be ever compassionate.


"before you turn to face a drift-less night,
approach with caution that what seems ever present,
and approach unsorrowed that which seems not there."

and then another glint in the woods.
seeming to be there right in the leaves.
a flash of something small.
but it is not a signifier
it is just that. a flash
perhaps light refracted on a dew drops surface..
a momentary greater illusion of something wanting to be born.

"i've given you all that i can.."
(i've given her nothing. taken nothing.)
"it is my time to go.
we follow ourselves
and we leave the same behind"

i pass the flame to a candle
on the ground
small its fire
dim its light

before i even fully stand
she is gone

and i follow
and i leave

and turn once back
to see the flame flicker twice
and exhale a final breath

More to come...