Chance Meeting by Emma Obata (Случайная встреча, Эмма Обата)

Chance Meeting

By Emma Obata
6-9-01

Once there lived two unicorns
As happy as can be.
One lived in the desert,
And the other in the sea.

One beast was the color
Of careless sea foam.
She reflected the white-caps
Of her watery home. The other had a mane
Like the shifting sands.
He blended to the dust storms
Of his powdery land.

One day the two did chance to meet
In a forest wide
And at the sight they stopped and fell
Onto their knees and cried.

Never before in this wide world
Had they known someone like they.
And now that they had found their one
They knew that they must stay.

When out rang a voice so sweet
They knew they must go see.
This song, this sound, they’d never heard,
The maiden by the tree.

They did not hear the footsteps fall,
So mesmerized were they
They did not hear the battle cry
They could not run away.

And then white fur was stained with red;
The sword that broke the trance.
And nevermore will humans know
The unicorn’s blessed dance.