On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
Etain: a dilly, a beauty, a prize,
Was obtuse to jealousy.
All premonitory warnings null,
When she found her legacy.
She was beyond compare and guile-free,
Torpor cast aside where her feet lay.
Until she turned the eye of Midir,
Whose angry wife harangued her away.
Conflating her jealousy with Etain’s guilt
She flew at her precariously
Enchantments lacking risibility
Turned only Fuamnach ugly.
Fuamnach turned her to water, worm, butterfly
Still assiduous Etain was kind
Standing upon an inflection point
Watching dolmens guide her mind.
On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
A storm raised against her, cast
to the sea. Deciduous seven years
Etain rode the wind, buffeted and weary,
No relief from her tears.
A storm raised against her, cast
From her husband. His lassitude for seven years
Of Fuanmach made a poor ectype
His heart now belonged with hers.
To the fairy palace of Angus on the Boyne,
A paradigm of sanctuary, Etain flew.
Refugee, faff, flower nectar she found
Unaware that evections brew.
To Angus a breviary of her woes she gave.
But he was just a tinhorn against her pursuer.
Fuanmnach found her and despite withershins
And warnings continued as wrongdoer.
With a smirk and false incriminations
Fuanmnach cast Etain to the sea
Seven more years absent safety,
Accoutrement, or peace was she.
On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
Pervicacious Etain blown by the wind
Became not lugubrious or full of strife
Until finally she alighted on a cup
And mesmerized the Chieftan’s wife.
Catharsis for Etain became burden bore
For Etar’s wife. The anchorite butterfly
was after arduous labor to Etar
a child born with expectations high.
A bolide she was born to mortal woman,
Secular prayers given to her grace
Eochaid, a secretly louche man wooed
And brought her to Tara in lace.
Queen Etain of Tara ruled with aplomb.
Bonhomous and fair, well loved by all,
Especially Ailill, her husband’s brother.
Who would zip her life with his thrall.
Ailill declared his delirious passion
Gratuitous granted Etain his heart
And repudiated his life in return
For a moment of marital art.
On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
Midir, his heart still longed for Etain,
His uncouth Fuanmach set aside again.
He imitated despondent, stentorian Ailill
And went to Etain with cold distain.
Ailill refulgent love dimmed,
It’s Immensity abruptly fled,
So that Etain knew it’s progeny
Must be evidence of a godhead.
Midir appeared to Etain as a savant
Begged her to return, threated to reave her away
Spoke of music, beauty and wonder.
Etain soundly didn’t respond with yay or nay.
Midir spoke of memories they shared,
Emulating human perishing wit and kind regard
Until through pure desperation he put
Himself all-out and she found a memory shard.
Midir basked in the fruition of his work,
Propassion stirred in Etain’s heart again,
But at Etain’s demand, Midir return to aphelion
her mortal husband must first abstain.
On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
Midir was analogous to Eochaid
Only in desire for Etain’s heart.
They sat together to play chess
Frore god vs histrionic upstart.
Fragile human ego, apropos
of a bellicose thymos, won
Game after game, gaining
Riches undeserved, favors done.
Under Midir’s tutelage, statuesque face
Kept blank, the human’s confidence grew.
So when one more game was proposed,
Eochaid was stiction-less, his wife as ante due.
All the great jewels and magic was paltry
Compared to what Eochaid lost that day.
Etain indited her love in a kiss to Midir,
Eochaid’s pluvious mood begged a month’s stay.
At the appointed time with adamantine,
sanguinary face, Eochaid tried to fight.
But with callous anger Etain turned toward Midir
And as swans they flew into the light.
On Solstice day we pause to see,
Lit bright by intrepid Sun,
The bellwether of all we be:
A young maiden’s life cast and undone.
Etain is now but a relucent flutter against
The firmament, as most gods remain.
But a young woman in need with appellation
Can still find her as a calm, steady light rain.
Used in a Poem 