The Traveller King Part One – David Hay

January 1, 2026

1
Longing is hard stepped.
A free horse
always finds a green sea
to drown in.

2
Down emerald steps,
descend Two boys dressed in dead flowers
their irises bleed pathways down their pallid cheeks,
the mystery of death is blooming in their craniums.

3
Two guitars, one red, one green
proclaim the death of the once great king.
In the hallways decorated by spiders webs
a man eats a peach disgustingly.

4
Two fingers spread the sky apart,
a dawn dies where no night ends,
a scar coils round a boy’s left wrist,
he bites at it as it grows,
there is no morning in heaven.

5
Corpse-stained lips press upon moss,
a Christ coughs up a dove and slips
feet first into the ocean,
his blood stains the sea.

6
One step beyond the blood stained meadow
A woman holds the stars like baby birds
in the palm of her saintly hands.
She offers each one to the storm cleaved sky.
Her mother, eyes heavy with a long-forgotten dew
rides a horse clothed in the weathers of winter,
tender is her breath and troubled are her dreams.