The Unicorn Reborn

Undaunted by death, it takes in damned breath,
Realizes its life has grim purpose.
The power of ego destroys those things regal
And so makes philandering surface.
Once, torn by the choice, it had screamed in cold voice,
Life's forces destroying its reason…
But those things undying must suffer the crying
And let the things have their season.

Phoenix destruction of Light's own construction,
Unending in its constant cycle,
Once more finds its victim, pronounces the dictum.
The Unicorn lives the debacle.
Jet wings unfold quickly. It struggles up sickly,
Rememb'ring the tricks Light has used;
Anticipates painful and often disdainful
Critiques of the motives it's cursed with.

Up to the subconscious it flies, all incautious,
To find there not what was expected.
Instead of Tanara now painful new horror
As yet by the Light undetected.
Complex are Fate's turnings; fiery Light's burnings.
These forces it knows all too well.
But it has no illusion that this new confusion
Comes neither from these nor from Hell.

Now unknown emotions birth-spark in it notion
That somehow Life meant it for better.
Its wings quiver strangely and, snorting, its eyes see
The new subject breaking its fetter.
Freedom floods through it and anarchy rule it
As must Unicorns be as ever
When woman approaches and its tether broaches;
All worldly restrictions it severs.

Reborn is the beast and on Light it must feast
To quench the insatiable thirsting.
Though it knows in so doing that the Fates start their brewing,
The knowledge sets its heart bursting.
Reborn is the beast: let the Fates be the least
Of the troubles that clamour before it!
It revels in night flying and denies the denying
Of life and all those who deplore it.

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.

Find more by David Blalock in the Author Index.

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