Out Of My Time (Poetry)

A time out of my time
yet I remember it —
the faint echo caught
in blood passed on
two dozen or more lives
before my own

The chill of castle walls
leaping orange flames
and shadows dancing
heavy footfalls of the guards
men’s voices arguing
the clash of swords

A bedchamber well-furnished
and plump with rich fabric
a woman singing
to a fretful child
the smell of candle grease
a wolf howling

Distant as a dream except
too vivid to dismiss
those haunting glimpses —
moon a-glint on armour
a horseman rides the hill
filmic scenes half-familiar

yet half-strange in tone
actors all long-dead
                their story done