We part from Gildas now, because his fate

Was spun from many in a woven thread.

And so I sing of Constance, stars elate!

His sister young, she too was Briton bred,

Trepid fawn, no dew broken at her tread.

Veiled white in vestments, with an air demure,

And roaming heart adrift, though it was pure.

A solitary grove by lush concealed,

Before the stump of once a mighty oak,

Fair Constance in her serenity kneeled.

Amidst standing stones, carven idols smoked

In desecration, yet still they evoked

A yearning for nature that to her calls;

Unfelt inside the cold of chapel walls.

Footsteps hither! The fox and vole took flight

At the clang of her brother’s intrusion.

‘Constance? Why lurk here in a heathen site?’

‘Tis no quirk to find mirth in seclusion!’

‘A crude dwelling for a crude folk’s delusion.’

She rose in wrath, ‘Doth thou forget our sire?’

‘Peace, lambkin. I’d have us not part in ire.’

‘Farewell, I set out for expedition.’

‘Be safe, dear brother. Swear thou’lt shirk demise!’

‘God is juror, though I shall petition.’

A fay doe approached them to their surprise.

‘Suppose our mother lies behind those eyes?’

‘Absurd and profane, time thou left this place.’

A horn blew out, he held her in embrace.

With Gildas off, she lingered in birdsong

Beneath the bower, halls of gold and red.

Caressed the ancient bark of ash along

The trunk, in thought of blasphemies unsaid.

Then trailing off with fairies in her head,

She found the path but soon was led astray

By a rasping call not so far away.

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In dappled light, through the tangle bounding,

Athwart the virgin growth unfettered; thrilled

With spirit unladen. At the sounding

Of near a howling roar, her blood were chilled,

And hairs erect, her heavy panting stilled.

T’was the creature’s pain, or her ilk uplifting

That towards it stirred her tendons shifting.

Crooked branches whipped past her beaming grin,

Into dim a glade, she hurtled to a halt.

Cages empty but for one, there within

Gurt shadow loomed. ‘O God forgive my fault.’

Presence primal, a wild sovereign in vault,

As low growling in cadence pulsed through her,

Each warning to stay the path rang truer.

At approach, feline was the stalking shape,

A sleek gloss, in hue of the witching hour.

With elegant strength in hulking arms, rape

Of light and space. Of prowess and power,

In awe she neared, as nerve would allow her,

To meet it’s eyes- gilt like lamps illumine,

With a gaze profound and all too human.

He raised a proud bulk of princely jaws,

Behind the mesh, two narrow pupils peered.

In face of towering shoulders and paws,

She felt courtesy, not a temper feared.

‘What cruelty captures creatures so revered?

Those eyes show occupance by any gauge!’

And prying the latch, she opened the cage.

Impulse spurred her feet, prudence bid them back,

As the grand beast– a full eclipse, emerged,

With sinewy strides, enfolding all in black,

And raising his snout, to her neck it verged.

Her heart in dithers, ‘Peace, prithee,’ she urged.

A lazy swipe would fold her, if so suited,

Too awed to flee, she remained there rooted.