fairy

I saw you,
waist-deep in the stream:
the glacial water rendered you
almost translucent –
your veins traced in fragile blue fire.

you appeared to me a fairy*,
a vision, a delirious dream,
a spirit of water,
a presence
enraptured by its own enchantment.

how sweet the honey tasted,
fermented on your lips,
how salt the sweat at your temple,
spilled
when the trembling tip of my blade
grazed you,
just below the thigh…

…
the wild fern,
arching over the stream’s banks,
harbored serpents,
whose venom now
runs mingled, forever,
with your blood.



*In English, the word fairy is semantically layered. While it denotes a folkloric being, it has also acquired additional coded connotations in modern cultural history, often playful or ironic. In poetry, this doubleness lends the term subtle undertones accessible only to readers attuned to its hidden registers.
Somewhat less poetically, Fairy is also the brand name of a ubiquitous dishwashing liquid. Even the most ethereal words can have surprisingly domestic afterlives :)))