Love notes written on parchment
by a gay sorcerer who swore eternal fidelity.
The quill pen script is splattered and smeared
by the blacksmith’s tears.

Matching wedding bands cast by the blacksmith.
Their union blessed by a full moon.
Silver that used to glimmer is as tarnished
as love smothered by malevolent magic.

His dead husband’s stained wool hat.
Three years after the sorcerer’s murder,
the brim still stinks like the quicksand
that swallowed his body.

The dagger the blacksmith forged
to avenge his husband’s death.
The sharp steel blade never tasted
the killer’s blood.

A sketch of the vicious witch
who conjured the quicksand.
Her head was devoured
by a cat she’d turned into a dragon.

A spiked iron collar
sawed from a dragon’s neck.
The freed fire-breather purred
and turned into a cat.