The Song of Ceber

Argument: Desiring a way to remove her husband's influence over events, Takara asks her niece Ausohara, the goddess of the garden, for Jimson Weed. Ausohara refuses and so Takara plots to distract her niece so as to make the theft.

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Four: The Rape of Ausohara

Takara in the Garden

While Ceber in Elsalay did rejoice
Takara went to Ausohara saying,
“On my journey in the world, I spotted
this lovely plant, with a white funnel-like
flower. Big, bushy, with spiked seed pods.
It is a favorite, I hear, of black and tan
caterpillars. Do you have this flower here?”

“Oh, Aunt,”       Ausohara said,
“You speak of Jimson Weed
Dangerous Datura.
It is inhabited by a mad spirit
She seeks power and is deadly poisonous.
What could you want with that?”

“Only a bouquet,”
Takara told       the lily-tamer.
“Something to put into my hall, for a spot
of white to liven up all the yellow and copper.”

“Such a bouquet would be       quite dangerous,”
Pretty Ausohara said.
“I cannot part       with a single petal no matter how pretty
You find it.”

“I am disappointed,” treacherous Takara said.
“Yet there is another thing I need. My husband
is an enigma. Now he will not share the carnal
pleasures with me. Does your garden hold a plant
that inspires amorous Elsalay? Something that can
ruin the senses so that only lust rules in the house
of reason?”

“Only that?” the virgin laughed.
“The divine yellow flower there,
But a drop and your husband
Will lose all reason       all rationality
He’ll be at you all night
Until you either come to song       or come to soreness.”

The deceitful scheming goddess took the flowers.
But not to her husband.
Dreadful Datura would be hers.
And she had not missed how the silver wasp gods
Sein and Yelsalay looked at their younger sister
And Clockwork Takara
Knew a good way to get rid of her niece.


The Song of Ceber

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