(This ties into the InuYasha manga. The image is of him and his mother when he was quite young. His father has died, and his mother knows she won’t be with him that much longer, and he’s fated to be an outcast after her death). I can’t believe I actually did a ballade on it, but I did. They are a hard form, with only 3 rhymes. 3 stanzas of ababbcbc and a final envoi of bcbc. Not my usual.
Izayoi Contemplates the Future: A Ballade
O little boy with silver hair,
Your father’s eyes look out at me
From your sweet face without a care,
You know not of the hate to be.
I long to keep you safe, you see
To wrap your little life with joy
The days will come when you must flee
For I must leave my lovely boy.
You are a child of love most rare,
The proof my lover left with me,
His amber eyes and silver hair —
You are a living memory
Of all we hoped when we were free
Before cruel fates made us its toy
And took your father far from me,
Away from his most precious boy.
I hate the fate that you will bear
Because your father died, you see -
None to protect the child so rare
My heart cries out for what must be -
Your father’s spirit calls for me,
And I will leave you without joy
When my soul follows his to be
At peace, my poor and orphaned boy.
And when that day has come to be,
I’ll pray for you to find the joy
That true love brings, to set you free
From all this grief, my lovely boy.
One more for now:
The Arrow’s Flight
Under the white bloom
of the apple tree that sways,
kissed by evening wind,
I watch the petals falling
white blades caught by unseen hands.
How quick the passage
of the spring into summer.
Close your eyes - it’s done.
The green leaves announce to all
how certain the passing time.
Arrow pointing up
released by the archer’s hand —
how swiftly it flies,
a graceful arc heavenwards,
falling at last to cold earth.
Hear it whisper now,
softly, the voice of the wind,
witness with the sky
of the passing blossom time,
of each arrow’s single flight.