Pantum: Snow Queen Poison Heart

The poison creeps slowly into my heart –

It has been there since the day I was born.

Introduced too early by a crystalline dart.

Villain or Saviour? Between these I’m torn.

It has been there since the day I was born,

Killing by inches for what I will do.

Villain or Saviour; between these I’m torn.

Death, my companion, I shall follow through.

Killing by inches for what I will do,

Doomed by prophecy to freeze the world up.

Death my companion? I shall follow through:

If this is my fate then come share my cup.

Doomed by prophecy to freeze the world up,

Introduced too early by a crystalline dart;

If this is my fate then come share my cup –

The poison creeps slowly into my heart.

Author’s Notes

I took my cue from the slightly disconnected opening of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen, with the fable of the distorted mirror whose splinters make everything ugly when they get in people’s eyes, and when they get into their hearts they turn them to ice. A version of this part of the fairytale is recited in the 1993 Carter USM track Evil. Also I was thinking about Frozen.