Bonfires by Lferion

Black Figures on Red Ground, Alight.

A red-black image, a six-word story, a sestina.

---

Prompts - Lit:G2 6-word story, Art:G2 Black Figure Pottery, Poetry:G1 Sestina, Fanwork:N5 Songfic

*** *** ***

Oh songs that tell of heroes, bright on black
Of prowess sing, the lofty deeds of figures
Terrible and tall, fell eyed, fighting on
Against the foe where battlefields run red
And gods themselves do hold the weary ground
Where stars come down to set the land alight

Such music sets the fading fëa alight
Rekindles hope, cleaves Shadow from the black
Of unstarred space, of rent, unhallowed ground
Where dust draws doom in characters and figures
Found in the nightmare fuel of white stained red,
And flesh renews with strength to carry on

From heights and depths of time the notes ring on
The words resound, lamps darkened spring alight
The clarion now calls neath banner red
A foe to match Ancalagon the Black
Wings to winnow winds, make deadly figures
Mar the world again; as in mortar ground

The blade, the song, the will, We hold this ground
Iron, dust or construct still spinning on
Defiance and defense in hidden figures
Working in plain view, fired coals alight
We heat the beaten mettle ashen black
Forge to renewed purpose, burning red

Are we gnomes or monsters, our hands too red
For other purpose than be finely ground
Encased in clay, fused, fired, brittle black
Aimed and cursed by others, to fall upon
No target of our choosing, all alight?
No such song sing: choose other figures

The song that shapes the world would learn these figures
Would know both blood and sunrise, gleaming red
Rise up on wings of fire, then alight
To comfort and defend those on the ground
The battle-tossed, the scorned and turned-upon
Make of dark a solace, set stars on black.

Cold clay painted black, complicated figures
In story carry on stern and stark on red
This the new-old ground, Song sets the world alight

*** *** ***