A/N:  "The Search" has won third place in the 2008 Middle-earth Fanfiction Awards for Poetry: Late Third Age.  :)

The Search

by Rhyselle

It hurts us, Precious, the stones under feet and hands,
Rough surface scrapes, sharp edges cut,
Gravel slips underfoot and we clings tightly,
Far away from cool dark and moist mud.

Searching, seeking, hunting, looking...

The bright up above burns us, Precious, it burns us,
Like flame and pitch and red hot irons,
Burning us up like fish skin and bones
When sweet juicy meat is gone, gone.

Tracking, trailing, chasing, pursuing...

It calls us, it does, Precious, silent and yet so loud
In head and heart and sinew and bone.
Must follow and find it and take it back.
Back from Thief Bagginses, back to me.

Stalking, shadowing, following, finding...

Over hill and under hill, through water and dust and pain,
I'll find you, Precious, take you and hold you,
Cherish and keep you, in secret places hide you
And never lose you again.

Seizing, taking, holding, hiding...

Forever, my Precious.

A/N: This was written for the Leaf and Stone Yahoo Group's The Tolkien Tango Prompt #12: WANDERING. When I first saw the prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was the map of Middle-earth as seen in the film... and then I noticed there were little footprints wandering about between Mordor and the misty mountains, heading north and west... kind of like the way the footprints appeared in the Marauders' Map in the Harry Potter movies, and I realized it was Gollum. I didn't want to write about Gollum, so I pushed it away and tried to write something else. Something else never showed up... and I kept seeing that map in my head. Soooooo... this is what Gollum wanted to say.