RB Lonetree: ‘The Unicorn’

The Unicorn

Beneath a bleeding, jagged sky
There lies a shattered, haunted town
Filled with the ghosts of war-time dead
And burned-out houses falling down

And in one house, in a cellar of stone
In the dark of her enduring night
Hides one little girl, all alone
Beside a flickering candle-light

And in that girl’s mind a garden grows
A wonderland of light and love
Far beyond the fire and steel
That rain upon the streets above

And in the garden of her mind
A world away from the fire-storm
A forest no soldier can ever find
And in it, playing … a unicorn

On streets of fury where snipers wait
With steadied hands and hearts of hate
They will not find your garden, girl,
They cannot pass beyond the gate

The gun-fire echoes over-head
It is only thunder, child,
A summer storm, cool and sweet
To water your garden of the world

The candle burns out and dies
But far away in a golden dawn
Beside a river a little girl lies
Amongst the flowers with her unicorn

Oh child, where’s your…