Fairy Circle

I stood upon adventure's razor edge,
A chance to taste the spice of things long feared,
A chance to dance an ancient sacrilege,
For on my lawn a Fairy Ring appeared.

Tread lightly where unseen Sidhe shadows play,
In dawn's soft light or twilight's creeping gloom,
For though your footsteps feel so light and gay,
The Tuatha Dé Danann craft your doom.

Beware the ring where fairies dance and play,
For mortals who join in their sacred round,
In dawn's first light or twilight's shadowed sway,
May find themselves by fae enchantments bound.

I jumped right in and jumped back out again,
In hardly what you'd ever call a dance.
I felt a fool for fearing their domain,
But I was never going to take a chance.

Mick McKellar
September 2024
 

No Crisis

I walk about in my bag of ocean.
I carry the sea in My Water World.
Although it seems such a novel notion,
My main and my jib are both unfurled.
I sail swift currents in my inner sea,
Though it is tidal, at the Moon’s behest,
Whose slow and gentle force moves mightily
To alter and remake me without rest.
It’s easy to puncture my outer shell,
If you make a hole in me, I will leak.
Repairs are possible but hurt like hell,
And take longer if the bag’s an antique.
Yet denizens of my vast inner sea,
Claim no climate crisis inside of me.

Mick McKellar
September 2024

Intelligence

I worry that intelligence of the artificial type,
Will soon tax and filter everything I hear and see,
And fill my world with such incredible levels of hype,
I’ll wonder if my mirror reflects someone else, not me.
My computer tries to finish sentences I write,
And argues with my grammar and the words I tend to choose.
I feel it’s found me wanting, or maybe not too bright.
If we played a game of Chess it’s likely I would lose.
I understand that certain things are beyond my control,
Years of work and sharing online mean that I’m well known.
A.I. has full access to my life in a fishbowl,
But works through my computer, the terminal I own.
Let it judge me all it wants, let it laugh and scoff,
When I’m tired of arguing, I’ll simply shut it off.

Mick McKellar
September 2024