Mortal Time

(Info gathered via Sonnet Central)

It seems to be a trend: Westercon is also having a sonnet-writing competition. Hmmm... wonder if we could get Orycon to run one?

The end words for this one are from Charles Lamb's "As when a child..."

1. night
2. knees
3. delight
4. decrees
5. spell
6. time
7. sublime
8. Hell
9. tear
10. tell
11. dear
12. fell
13. impart
14. heart

with extra points given for the use of the word "gnome" and for a theme of return or homecoming.

I didn't manage to use "gnome", but I got in both "gnomon" and "gnomic", neither of which actually has anything to do with gnomes.

The gnomon shadow edges toward the night.
A boy-child sits beside a woman’s knees
and she regards him fondly, with delight
against the Demon King’s most stern decrees.
She knew it wouldn’t last, the changeling spell
that made the child human for a time.
She’s watched the years evaporate, sublime.
Tonight the child must take his throne, in Hell—
a Prince anointed with a mother’s tear.
She knows it’s so, but still she cannot tell
her son the gnomic words that she holds dear:
that Love may yet redeem the ones who fell.
She’s used her mortal time up to impart
to demon’s son a loving human heart.