Forgotten Ground Regained
True Thomas
When hares whelp on hearthstones and whales swim in the city,
Wit and Will shall war together.
Then a barrel of oil shall cost a barrel of blood
As man leads man in chains to market.
When fathers are forgotten and sons prove false,
Pride will preen and peace be imprisoned.
Then a madman will be monarch through his own misdeeds,
As hunger harries more than half the world.
When a lamb with six limbs lurches and falls,
fruits shall fail throgh flood and foul weather.
Then waves will wax wild while women thirst,
As a false sun smiles and seals our doom.
When shall this be? It is sadly seen:
In your time and mine and the time between.
Originally published in New Crops from Old Fields: Eight Medievalist Poets. Oz Hardwick, Stairwell Press, 2015. An earlier version appeared in The Dawn Treader 6 (2009).
Copyright © Oz Hardwick, 2015