Sestina

I wrote this back in 2000 or 1999. It was my senior year of high school.

The style of the poem is a sestina. The rules are as follows:

1 2 3 4 5 6 - End words of lines in first sestet.
6 1 5 2 4 3 - End words of lines in second sestet.
3 6 4 1 2 5 - End words of lines in third sestet.
5 3 2 6 1 4 - End words of lines in fourth sestet.
4 5 1 3 6 2 - End words of lines in fifth sestet.
2 4 6 5 3 1 - End words of lines in sixth sestet.

Elfin ears prick in the wind
Hearing an arrow notched in the string
Almond-shaped eyes, watching the arrow, narrow slightly
A mouth is pulled tight in a line
Auburn hair, behind the ear, blows in the breeze
As the arrow is released to the sky.

Ivory-white wings slice through the sky
Clouds whip past in the wind
Pink flower petals are held aloft in the breeze
A row of doves, with the petals, flit in a string
Three faeries flutter with the doves in a straight line
The elf’s arrow whizzes past, missing slightly.

Merry women giggle slightly
As three pairs of eyes gaze at the doves in the sky.
Three maidens dance in a line
Their blonde, auburn, and red hair blow in the wind.
Held tightly in their hands is a string
That they wrap around the May Pole as the doves fly on the breeze.

A flower from the auburn hair escapes on the breeze
Moving through the trees slightly.
Escaping the entrapment of a little boy’s string
A kite upon the string flies high into the sky
His yellow hair fluffs in the wind
As fish swim from his fishing line.

A school of trout swims past the line
As bugs dance in the breeze.
Pollen clouds the air of the lake, carried by bug and wind.
The fish turn slightly
As a bird swoops from the sky.
One bird, in his mouth, holds a kite string.

The maidens hold the string
The fishes skirt the line
Doves and faeries dot the sky
A flower drifts on the breeze
Merry laughter giggles slightly