Ithaqua

In northern wood in loamy deeps
Red worms and blacken'd mold do play.
White-eyed deer rush headlong away
Their fear in dreadful silence sweeps.

The bone white man -- haughty he looks,
The earth's great lord, tames all he names,
Bother him not with ancient games
Of creatures not writ down in books --

Comes to the wood to cut and burn.
His perfect faith gives all to him:
Red oak and wolves, all fish that swim,
Are deemed useless unless they earn.

He camps beneath a cozy tent
That sits under the forest deep.
His lordship now falls fast asleep
'Till night's soft blanket's loudly rent.

What was that noise: a cry of pain?
An animal caught in a trap?
He pulls his rifle to his lap
And waits for it to sound again.

He reaches out beyond the dark
With lantern shine against the night.
He gasps to see a lady bright
Sitting alone by campfire spark.

"How came you here in such wild night?
Are you in pain or in great need?"
He whets his appetite of greed
And sidles near to stay her flight.

Now smiles she 'neath her hooded eye
And speaks soft words as though asleep:
"The woods are lonely, dark and deep.
Please, let me stay somewhere nearby."

"l am not welcome now at home.
My father tells my mother lies
And 'lows me not to make replies.
So in the forest I must roam."

"To pay for spot within your camp
I promise to spin out a tale
That reaches far beyond the pale
Of natural law in woodland damp ."

Now sits the gunman with his gun
Transfixed by all her mystic breath
And though it just might mean his death
He cannot stir, he cannot run.

Her story thus is spun from air
Catching his mind, a spider, there:

"Above the bounds of sight and sound,
Beyond the ken of modern man,
A creature comes because it can
To pluck its prey from off the ground."

"Ithaqua was its ancient name.
Wehendigo ( it's called that, too)
Runs 'twixt forest and skies of blue
Treetop striding on feet of flame."

"Lost Huron brave in dense fog weird,
Mohawk who left the fire's glare
Might find a maiden waiting there
Who was not what she first appeared."

"That what she was could be foreseen
Because her feet she always hid
And soft her speech could close the lid
Of eyes on warriors strong and lean."

"Ithaqua boldly took its fill
Of braves and babes and knaves nearby;
Offending none and fed thereby
To run and feed on forest's sill."

"The treetop home of one so bless'd
So lightly balanced, all depends
On keeping forest, glade and fens
Pristine and pure above the rest."

"A demigod (if gods there be)
Cannot, will not, dwell in the mud.
Creature of air, fire, and blood
Must have its throne, must have its tree!"

She sights his saw and sighs deep sighs
In her dark gaze he tells no lies.

She stands upon the smoking moss
And hooks him underneath his chin.
Her single bound treetop does win--
The forest's gain, no one's great loss.