A Truism

 Desire is a terrain where body and soul conspire and betray in equal measure.

The Black Velvet Band

 

The Black Velvet Band is a traditional folk song with roots in Ireland and the British Isles. It tells the story of a young man who is tricked by a beguiling woman and sent to Van Diemen’s Land as punishment. Like many folk songs, it has been passed down through generations, each singer shaping the story in small ways.

I wanted to create my own version because I am drawn to the folk tradition of storytelling, and I relate deeply to the tragedy of being deceived, to the sense of fate and misfortune overtaking ordinary life. 

 

 • • • 

 

Her neck arched pale, a swan in flight,
Yet terror lay beneath her light;
The laughter soft that drew me near
Was Zeus’s guile, both cold and clear.
O heed, young lads, take warning well:
The fairest eyes may weave a spell;
What seems so soft may bind so fast,
As I was bound, too late, at last,
By the cruel black velvet band.

Before judgement I stood, undone,
Seven long years beneath the sun;
Friends and kin like shadows fled,
And all my youth lay cold and dead.
Yet still her hair, her swanlike grace,
Haunts every bleak and desolate place;
Her eyes, her eyes, like diamonds gleam,
The memory of a vanished dream,
Held fast by the black velvet band.

So hear me, lads, when ale is poured,
And laughter runs along the board;
For beauty hides the power to kill,
And innocence masks a cunning will.
Her eyes like diamonds, coldly shone,
Her hair a swan’s wing, darkly thrown,
And I, alas, by fate unmanned,
Was lost beneath the velvet band.

 

 

Terrible Miracle

Healing is not relief; it is possession. Knowledge is not triumph; it is invasion. 

The body, once pliant, is no longer yours.

The mind, once solitary, is no longer yours.

Every heartbeat is an echo of forces you cannot name, every thought a corridor through which some alien presence walks.

And yet, the miracle compels you to continue, to live, to marvel.

And in that marvel lies the terror, the exquisite, unrelenting terror, of knowing that life itself is no longer your own, but a canvas for currents that move unseen, endless, and merciless.