Bonfires by Lferion  

Black Figures on Red Ground, Alight.

A red-black image, a six-word story, a sestina.

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Prompts - Lit:G2 6-word story, Art:G2 Black Figure Pottery, Poetry:G1 Sestina, Fanwork:N5 Songfic

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Oh songs that tell of heroes, bright on black

Of prowess sing, the lofty deeds of figures

Terrible and tall, fell eyed, fighting on

Against the foe where battlefields run red

And gods themselves do hold the weary ground

Where stars come down to set the land alight

Such music sets the fading fëa alight

Rekindles hope, cleaves Shadow from the black

Of unstarred space, of rent, unhallowed ground

Where dust draws doom in characters and figures

Found in the nightmare fuel of white stained red,

And flesh renews with strength to carry on

From heights and depths of time the notes ring on

The words resound, lamps darkened spring alight

The clarion now calls neath banner red

A foe to match Ancalagon the Black

Wings to winnow winds, make deadly figures

Mar the world again; as in mortar ground

The blade, the song, the will, We hold this ground

Iron, dust or construct still spinning on

Defiance and defense in hidden figures

Working in plain view, fired coals alight

We heat the beaten mettle ashen black

Forge to renewed purpose, burning red

Are we gnomes or monsters, our hands too red

For other purpose than be finely ground

Encased in clay, fused, fired, brittle black

Aimed and cursed by others, to fall upon

No target of our choosing, all alight?

No such song sing: choose other figures

The song that shapes the world would learn these figures

Would know both blood and sunrise, gleaming red

Rise up on wings of fire, then alight

To comfort and defend those on the ground

The battle-tossed, the scorned and turned-upon

Make of dark a solace, set stars on black.

Cold clay painted black, complicated figures

In story carry on stern and stark on red

This the new-old ground, Song sets the world alight

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