Sestina for Virgo

Our dearest queen alights there, proud Virgo.
Smiling upon us, our sweet mother
Protects us from the world of shedded blood
She looks with sad eyes to the sparkling stars,
Glittering fortune-tellers that court the moon
She cries them tears of broken emerald.

Outside her men battle with bodies of brittle emerald
That crack and crumble despite our revered Virgo.
They kill by the sun and cry by the moon.
Men call out for the embrace of their jaded mother
In desperate hope they join their hands and pray to the stars
For the next day will surely reveal their blood.

Sweet flowers will grow from soldier's spilled blood
With lilac petals that sprout from emerald
Stalks. They reach in earnest to the spiteful stars
To beg for answers for our cherished mother.
The stars in turn jeer our precious Virgo
Who sits and shrieks by a bone-marrow moon.

Space leaks her blank tears on the moon
Who fortells of our kind queen's curse of blood
That stains hands. People in the streets cry "Mother!
Wherefore art thy sympathy?" offering their emerald
Fruits to our beautiful Virgo
Who weeps and discounts them, seducing the stars.

They do not listen, for the stars
Dance away in teasing embraces with the moon
Singing out for answers, furious Virgo
Splits her men apart, their green blood
On her hands. In desperation they strive harder for her emerald
Heart. They painfully revere our darling mother.

They weep "Mother!" but sweet Virgo
Has been stolen by the stars, leaving tears of blood
Shed for an emerald crown, by the spiteful light of the moon.