The Fall Of The Unicorn

This one was written after a comment that someone in my life said at the time. I wrote the whole poem in less than an hour - probably the fastest I have ever written anything in my life, the words just poured out.


A tree stands alone in the midst
Of the throng of others
And it waits

The hunter gathers in the trickling sunlight
His thoughts focused
Strategy formed
A single purpose…
Clinical thoughts geared towards finding just right conditions
The right moment for opportunity
And the right place at the right time

He crosses the threshold of the misty glade
Carefully and reverently he steps
Emitting no sound
Only the slight give of the ground under his feet

The hunter waits there
Patiently waiting for the quarry he seeks most
Every day he sits
In the dewy shade of that lone tree
The tree unique among many
Looking for that telltale motion of leaves
The flicker of light
The held breath of Mother Nature herself

He tenses…

It has arrived in the air
The life of it literally seizes him
Energy quivers in the glade around him

And the sunlight wavers…

The elusive legend approaches him
Feet lighter than the most furtive
Lithe body rippling with power
Its coat glimmers like a pearl taken from the bottom of the ocean
Mane and tail flow like kings’ banners
The horn…

It scents the air and finds him
Warily it dances around the clearing, as if it knows…
Knows what could be at stake
To her

She sees the latent hunter
Patiently waiting
Waiting as he has every day for a seemed eternity
She knows what he is there for
Just like all of the others, he waits
For her… they all have their reasons
The quest, the hunt, the finding of the subject of so many tales
Their pride brings them
Their love of the quest
The love of beautiful things

The scent
Intoxicating as it surrounds him
She knows the clinical effect she exudes
What she inspires in him, and the hordes before… come and gone
After all…

Who does not want to capture the uncaught?

She has fended off countless so-called suitors
Those who want
Glory, fame, the ultimate tale to regale
She looks at the situation and the choices before her
And realizes
Something that she has not wanted to face
She looks at him and sees inside her own self
And sighs

She is ready to stop fighting herself

She continues the journey
The hardest one she has ever entered
Possibly the last one she will ever make
And she accepts the risk that lies beneath

She stops mere inches
From where he stands
Her scent floods into his system
So many things blending into an unidentifiable impression
Strong, proud
Musked with unadulterated sensuality
Kissed with vulnerability
Looking into her eyes, he sees
Only the mirror image of his own

Her own private war was waged
Between two different kinds of survival
She must choose
Both offering safety
Both promising hurt
Making her decision, she accepted one or the other defeat
She lowered her guard
Closed the gap
And touched her horn to his heart

He reached out with both hands
Each finger trembling with possibilities
When his hands grazed the gilded spiraled point
His breath
Released with a sigh

The uncaught had become the caught

He remained motionless
In that never foreseen embrace
She felt every nerve
Quicken faster than light
Afraid to break contact, she waited
Without a stir
She lifted her gaze to meet his own
And again she saw only what she herself felt inside
Mirrored within his stare

With only a single thought, she chose
To show him all that she was
To give him the gift
That no one in her life and ones past
Had ever been given
The magical gift that all wished to have granted
To become the beauty seen through love’s factual eyes

The horn grew warm under his hands
Warm and hotter
He pulled his hands away and watched
As the glow found in the unicorn’s eyes
Became a tangible part of the air
Light became mist
And shielded her in a shroud of glowing tendrils
Which grew hotter and brighter
Until the hunter threw up his protecting hands
And even the sun shielded its raging eyes

In that momentous flash of power
Pearls had become suns
Kings’ banners had turned into flames
And a tale had just come true

She stood there before him
In the same spot as before
The same soul emanated from her eyes
A different form radiated in his
He stared at the reflection in astonishment
The antithesis of his own
He looked down at the hands that only moments before
Had gripped the golden horn
Now he stared at the woman before him
The wind rippled through her hair
And he saw her start
As if the new body petrified her

She stifled her tremors and lifted her gaze
And stretched out one white arm
She started with just one hand outstretched
And quickly it became both
She wanted
To feel in her human form
What she felt in her self
She felt human flesh for the first time
On her virgin fingertips
Closing her eyes
She felt the fluid shudder
And surrendered to the want of that touch

The velvet glide
She gives it
He feels it
They both become it

The slight brush of that warm, musked skin
Entered him
Inundated his body
Drove out all his other senses
All feelings but of her
The light had entered him and become his flesh

She felt his senses begin to reemerge
And saw the glint of gold curl
Around the edges of her vision
She closed her eyes

She knew…

The time had come.

He pulled back slightly and looked
Into the eyes
Younger than purity
Older than time
Hopeful yet resignedly bittersweet
Wordlessly he breaks the connection
And vows with his eyes to return
The air is too profound
Laden with meaning that negates the spoken word

He turns
And walks away from her
Vision centered on his former hiding place
When he reaches it, he turns
One last look before he embarks
On his journey home

The mythical beast stares back at him
Sunlight serpentine
Around the twisting gilded point
Illuminating
The infinitesimal ethereality
Of the gilt threads now enclosing her