The Horsemaster Rides
Past sweet, ancient forests that flow like the tides;
Through cold, broken ruins where memory bides;
Beneath the vast heaven where errant moon hides;
Along the dark pathways, the Horsemaster rides.
He travels alone with a horse for his friend
And only such love as his herd-mate can lend.
He cares not enough his own life to defend --
The Horsemaster, bound to his desolate wend.
He hunts for the hatred that slaughtered his kin;
Though countless have fallen, that comfort is thin.
He seeks to surrender without giving in --
The Horsemaster kills, but the pain bides within.
The peace that he longs for he hopes not to win;
He lives but to end what he could not begin.
The hunt is his lover, and darkness his twin --
A life lived in death is the Horsemaster's sin.
Revenge may be sweet, but he cannot pretend,
For what once was broken no vengeance can mend.
Too stubborn to break and unable to bend,
The Horsemaster struggles alone to the end.
He journeys through desert where sunlight derides,
Across the bleak tundra that nothing confides;
He sings to his herd as his heart he divides --
Where emptiness leads him, the Horsemaster rides.