Transcript
Book 1, Chapter Five: Spear-won Land, Pages 115 and 116
In a temple where a sacred fire burns,
kept alive for the royal house,
a hooded figure lingers.
He watches between broken strands of honey sunlight
as the priest of the temple pours blessed water over flames.
A ritual only done at the death of the king.
Only…
he’s still
he’s still and still and still
still alive,
still living.
As the temple plunges into darkness,
and the dark and painful grief returns,
tinged with tears and the shearing of honey sunlight,
the still-breathing king falls to the ground
weeping
for the ghost
he can no longer follow.
Chapter Five 115-116
Footnotes:
- Zoroastrian fire temple
- The Last of the Zoroastrians – a piece about the author’s return to his Zoroastrian heritage, and the dwindling community he ends up meeting.
- This moment is in Diodorus, one of the Vulgate source. (114.4) Our last omen.
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