The Return Of Tanara of the Light

by David Blalock

Borne back by the winds of time,
Circumstance and chance,
Comes Tanara of the Light
To dance her mystic dance.

Her hair's once more blown by air
Moving round her mind.
Come, Tanara, neo-temptress,
Quit your Master's binds!

Alas! Behold, the Unicorn...
He shies beneath her hand.
Come, Tanara, realize,
It's animal, not man.

She'll pull hard the lightning rein
And grip firm the jet-black mane;
Try hard to turn its head and win;
Fight long to hold the magic in;
Yet she'll soon find that, in the end,
It's only the animal can win,
And she'll be forced to lean and bend
Before the strength of pain's cold wind.

Woe strides a hard trek down
Below, beyond her mind;
And Tanara of the Light
Someday the Light will find.

But the night-hued Unicorn
Retains it mindless soul.
Perhaps it knows its cursed heart
Fares ill because it's cold.

As for Tanara of the Light,
May gods aid and keep her
To find the Light she thought she's found,
Soon seen as nothing for her.

Author's Note:
I have written a series of poems around the Arabic image of the unicorn: winged and black. It represents the baser instincts in man in a way that is not conveyed by the more western unicorn. Although westerners allow that the nature of the beast can only be tamed by the innocence of a virgin, they do not address the why of that assertion. I have tried to capture that reason in these poems.

E-mail:jrlthran@memphisonline.com