Song at a Cottage Door by Megan Arkenberg

I am the queen of hell or heaven,
I am the king of life or death:
I am the lord of little places:
I am the prince of stone and breath:

I am the merchant’s eldest daughter:
I am the hangman’s wayward son:
I fell in love with seven maidens
and I never married one.

I fell in love with seven princes
and they died for love of me.
I built a raft of seven timbers
and I sailed it to the sea.

I wove a cloak of seven shadows
and I wore it to the ball
of the seven Queens of Summer
in a house called Winterfall.

I made a pact with seven witches
and I broke it for a dime.
I spent a night in the silver palace
of the clockwork King of Time.

I took a road for seven miles
over hill, through rush and moor
and it brought me, cold and weary,
to your creaking cottage door.

I am the queen of hell or heaven,
I am the god of love and sin:
and I will grant you seven wishes
if you come and let me in!


BIO: Megan’s work has recently appeared in Fantasy Magazine and been accepted for issues of Strange Horizons and Clarkesworld. She edits the fantasy magazine Mirror Dance and the historical fiction magazine Lacuna.


IMAGE: Mosaic of Zeugma, from Gaziantep Museum of Archeology