Another monster for this month of monsters. An odd dryad that creates forests by transforming her lovers, however involuntarily. Thanks to Havilah Mara for the reading and the Librivox team for the production.
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Gathered into greenish pools
Daylight lies among the trees.
Here the warm blood quickly cools,
Here the swift limbs quickly freeze.
Pierce my veins, what do you find?
Nothing potent to congeal.
Thigh and breast and cheek are lined
With a substance brash as steel.
My green face and my green hair,
These my sharp, unwonted tears,
Take their color from the air
I have breathed a thousand years.
Do not tempt me to betray
One more victim. Birch and pine,
Cypress, dogwood, hemlock, bay,-
These were lovers, once, of mine.
Gathered into greenish pools
Daylight lies among the trees.
When a lover’s passion cools,
Harken! He becomes as these.
