[In the form of traditional folk ballad.] <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />In Blackburn Wood a maid betrothed <br />that rode a garlanded mare <br />by cutthroat maimed for maidenhood <br />writhed in crimson there. <br /> <br />Dislimbed beneath a shrieking sun <br />and left for carrion-kite, <br />the savaged maid survived their beaks, <br />and slithered into night. <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />By summer's end, to Blackburn Wood <br />a sheath of night returned; <br />beneath its hood and tapered robe <br />maiden vengeance burned. <br /> <br />'Disrobe and yield or fall in blood, <br />this blade rejects all pleas: <br />I leave a maid a looping asp <br />that will not lift her knees.' <br /> <br />'I'll shed my robe and hood that am <br />no maid to fear such thing; <br />to chill your blazing blood I bear <br />a maiden's righteous sting.' <br /> <br /> <br />III <br /> <br />A lethal hiss cut short his grunts, <br />bestial snarl hardened to stone, <br />as ramping venom drained him faint <br />and pale as weathered bone. <br /> <br />Up from a clump of blasted weeds <br />there rose in mid-day light <br />from cutthroat's ribs and skull, pecked clean, <br />a flock of swollen kite. <br /> <br />A field away a sheath of scales, <br />resembling robe and hood, <br />curled round a broken garland <br />redeemed in Blackburn Wood. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />*(Lamia in Greek myth is a serpent with the head <br /> and breasts of a woman.)<br /><br />William F Dougherty<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lamia-in-blackburn-wood/
