Lit eZine Vol 5 | p-7 | POETRY | Agamond’s Lament

LONG POEM

AGAMOND’S LAMENT
by Ben G. Price

Excerpt from the novel OGDEN: A Tale for the End of Time

Out of the barbarous valley of strife
Stewing in murder and toying with life;
Out of the path of crude death by sharp shafts,
Tempered blades, cold steel, and the ominous crafts,
Agamond stepped lightly, retreating in haste
With a scourge on his lips and a scowl on his face.

‘Men are berserkers; men are now lost
Beyond the salvation of nature – the cost!
They trammel the mountain and trample the earth,
Offending the hillside and cursing with mirth.
The time is arising; the land will rebel
And bury the wretches and send them to hell!’

The gnome gave a signal no mortal could hear
While the fate of the warriors was sealed with a cheer.

‘No more shall the elements of nature give aide
In the struggles of men or the way they behave!
The gnomes are all with us, the nymphs of the sea,
The dragons of fire and sylphs of the breeze!
They band as a power and make their demands:
No slaves to the madness and death at men’s hands.’

The form of the gnome melded in with the stone
As though soil his flesh and pebble his bone.
Then the mountain cried out and dark clouds ringed ‘round
And fire spat out with a hideous sound
To send molten hate flying into the sky
While the whole earth emitted a hideous sigh.

Nymphs leapt and chanted out from the sea;
Gnomes rolled boulders and watched them fly free;
Salamanders lapped and lashed with their tails
Listening to men give out their death wails.

The valley was littered with armor and limbs
As mortals bowed down to start chanting their hymns.
But their gods were not with them and all was aswirl
With sylphs in the steam that could choke them and curl,
And with nymphs in the river that flooded and hissed
With the sound of the lava that rolled like a fist.
Gnomes shook the tree trunks and woke the wood folk
Who added their strength and put on the yoke,
And aided the movement of earth against men
Since that was their purpose and that was their yen.

The kings of the warriors cried out in awe,
Yet surrendered no power, since they were the law.
But the sylphs all hissed in a wispy, thin voice
Of sulfuric vapor, explaining their choice:

‘For we have borne arrow and spear to the heart
Of men – we’re the wind – but now we depart.’

The gnomes of the earth yelled as a crowd,
Angry, surly, and gutturally loud:

‘We’ve borne the hooves of your steeds on our spine
‘cross the fields of your warfare and each battle line;
No more will we help you to kill off your friend,
And this is our answer: Forever and End!’

The voice of the salamander, the dragon’s word
Snapped in a flame that could almost be heard:

‘Eyes we have given you; warmth we have fed,
But you make us vultures to consume your dead.
This is enough – we crackle and sway.
Last, we shall bear all your souls far away!’

And the nymphs cried in turn:

‘Though salamanders burn,
We’ve carried your war ships from harbor to coast;
Protection we gave you as borders and moats.
But now it is time, for the sake of the sea
To drown out the demons and set ourselves free!’

And so was the curse of each element fulfilled
‘til the last of the mortals had somehow been killed
And dominion returned to the spirits at hand
And silence and peace were restored to the land.
The fire subsided; the lava was cooled.
The boulders had toppled; the waters were pooled
And the wind gave a sigh with the end of the strife,
Proclaiming its joy and the promise of life.