honey and sting

For Iferion, for the prompt: Gilgamesh - Enkidu - longing in spring


Enkidu Mourns

One day he wakes, dew fresh on brow.
His brother sleeps beside.
Brother, lover, king.
Dawn is grey in many veils.
Land barely lit, and here upon the grass
he scents them, barely stirring,
their eyes upon him but only darting,
no more to gaze with the studied certainty
of kin.

One day he wakes and hears faint music
of the dawn. Gilgamesh the great king slumbers on.
King, lover, brother.
Afraid to mar the song, he strains for sounds
that once were language pure and true.
In the west, a heavy moon.

One day he wakes, but does not stir.
His lover at his side.
Lover, brother, king.
Keeps watch while in the bush
the dance of Spring goes on.
Hide and hoof and horn. Nip of courting,
sharpened claw, wild wood run and suckling born.
Bound, thus, by forgotten grief,
Enkidu mourns.