Caged Star

I saw her in a cage
At a country fair.
All the lovely rage
Of the world was there:

Trembling in the wings
Of rainbows and silk,
Raining down in rings
Of hair as white as milk.

It seemed rude to stare,
Uncivilized to tarry.
But I lingered to stare
At he who caught a fairy,

And bound her in bars
For the gaze of mortal eyes,
A butterfly-winged star
Whom he must despise.

As green as all the seas
That shifted without cease,
Her eyes yet held ease
And a terrible kind of peace.

I knew that one morning
Someone would awaken,
And find, without warning,
The fairy-taker taken,

Torn away from life
And from his blood and bone.
They would shiver at the strife,
And leave the corpse alone,

While somewhere out afar,
With his star's escape,
His soul would be in bars,
And fairies line up to gape.