Joe Kelly Ezmay

This poem is a thank-you to the three women who guided a strange lad from the shadow he carried within: Joe gave him truth, Kelly gave him a task, and Ezmay gave him a destination.

In western lands where cliffs stand steep,
A quiet village lay asleep.
The trees stood tall, on rocky ground,
And a strange new lad had come around.

He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh

He saw the woods, a tangled dark,
And felt a fear, a trembling spark.
He thought the folk, with teeth so white,
Would eat him in the fading light.

He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh

Then Joe spoke, her words so clear,
Made sense of what he held so dear.
She said the tales the sirens sing,
Of Faina, Koswick, and the spring,
The Lien Gwerin, the souls and fear-
Are but a mirror, drawing near.

That hollow ache, the phantom bite,
Was his own soul in endless night.
A hunger feeding on his soul,
That swallowed up and made him whole.
With only dread, the fight began,
Not ‘gainst the world, but ‘gainst the lad.

He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh

Then Kelly spoke--a blank page, stark white,
His nano, a model he must write;
She set his hands a task--a rite-
To fill the dark with his own light.

He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh

So by the trees, he shivers now,
An apple-scented breeze, somehow.
‘Tis not for fear of what’s ahead,
But awe for words he left unsaid.
A little tune he starts to play,
To find his strength, his own Ezmay.

With footsteps soft and slow and low,
Led by a single moonbeam’s glow,
He edges toward that shadowed place,
To meet the “four”, in their true guise,
And see his own self in "his" eyes.

He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh
He diddie eye diddie oh de die
Diddie he diddie eye de oh