The Queen is Sick (the mother has seen too much)

I know all the secret names;

they are arbitrary

  -- but how can a mother be

in a dying world?

I found a bridge

but it was in the Terrain

and could not be used

between us

because it wasn't a sign

it was just a bridge

not in the obvious place

but animals had used it

there were traces

in the snow

I crossed and got lost

but only for a while

and then I went back

to where I had been

and it was now a human place

and there are these signs
-- so how can a mother be?

She has to believe

She is the Queen

and She can never know

even if the world was dying

but she lives in a human place

and if there is a future

for these the traces that point there – beyond

like Us

We can find Her

and the world as we know it

was not dead after all

it only came close

and the mother could only hope

(it is so very human)

but we who are not the Queen

we now know that the Terrain isn't arbitrary.