Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
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Ariel Comes

by David Blalock


From far beyond the winds of time,
From out the shadows of the Light,
Formed by the reason of the rhyme
That pulsates in the endless Night,
From those came Ariel the White
To give the Unicorn new sight.

Willow mystic swaying image
Shape she took to shake the night-beast
Tremble back from Death's own presage.
Let the Unicorn again feast,
Take the rein and tame the magic
Of the winged beast's return tragic.

The Unicorn at first denies
The hand that lies before its eyes
And from the willow rider shies,
But then in joyous power flies.
Its wings beat patterns in the skies
Above the hypocritic lies.

It knows, as does the rider white
That far below resides the Light,
And even at their farthermost height
It pierces through the jet-black night.
And so the Unicorn must fight
The hand of Ariel the White.


© 1998 David Blalock

Author's Note: I have written a series of poems around the Arabic image of the unicorn: winged and black. It represents the baser instincts in man in a way that is not conveyed by the more western unicorn. Although westerners allow that the nature of the beast can only be tamed by the innocence of a virgin, they do not address the why of that assertion. I have tried to capture that reason in these poems.


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