by Nick Gisburne
Frozen, abandoned, the titan of brass
Longs for a life, for a heartbeat of steam
Crippled and buried, her gears do not spin
Ice grips the metal, the shell of her skin
Centuries sleeping, a desolate dream
Locked in a prison of glass
Whispers remember her, frozen in glass
Murderous, mythical titan of brass
Is she a memory? More than a dream?
Where lies the goddess of shadow and steam?
Visions and nightmares burn into my skin
Images spiral and spin
There, in the north, where the compasses spin
There, in the glacial rivers of glass
There, where the blizzards rake into the skin
There will I find her, the titan of brass
There will I render the ice into steam
There will I follow my dream
Years have delivered me here, with a dream
Flames from my furnaces ripple and spin
Torrents of water and curtains of steam
Boiling away from the prison of glass
There, in the shadows, the titan of brass
Senses, in silence, her skin
Rivers of heat flood the shell of her skin
Long has she waited to wake from the dream
Destiny summons the titan of brass
Axles and flywheels and cylinders spin
Scarlet eyes burning, she shatters the glass
Rising in splendour and steam
Weeping, I worship my goddess of steam
Praising the shimmering lines of her skin
Why does she pick up the sliver of glass?
Did she not call for my help in a dream?
Silent, she watches the severed head spin
Thus wakes the titan of brass
Witness the tyrant, the goddess of steam
Vengeance and terror, set free from a dream
Howl as she crushes your bodies of skin
Welcome your death, see your destiny spin
Freed from the ice, from her prison of glass
Hail to the titan of brass
Another sestina, bent to my will! This time instead of a 3-line envoi at the end I decided to add a complete stanza, to tie everything together. As always, rules are there to be broken if the end result is enhanced. Is this now a true sestina? Probably not. But it’s poetry and it’s done and I like it.
I did have trouble starting this one. I had ‘steel’ and ‘wheel’ as two of the 6 end-words, and that was going absolutely nowhere for story ideas. But as soon as I decided on a replacement word, ‘brass’, I then used ‘glass’ and that was a lock-in for steampunk and ice, which as anyone will tell you is a truly excellent aperitif!
