—
This poem is based on a Dutch folk tale called The Lady of Stavoren.
—
for years I have sailed
across these seven seas
never before have I seen
someone holding on
so tightly to themselves
I think she’s been
waiting for me
in her castle of marble and stone
hiding from the glaring
midday sun
abandoned and counting
always counting
on what she owns
everyone says
her soul has flown, is lost
she may cast me aside
my forlorn love
I imagine her
as my future bride
she takes my ring of red
onto a pale hand
until I am gone
I will gather the riches of the world
but what else is out there to find
which is more valuable to me
than her heart?
what else is worth more
than the wild creations
of her brilliant mind?
I set out
dipping my oar into the salt
each new land seems to be
more barren
than the last
gold and jewels are nothing to us
when I think, at night
how I wish I could bring her
every star
and the heavy skulls of
water dragons
from the deep blue ocean
if only
every bone would grant
her wishes
I think of these things
when I find a port
where wheat grows in great
angry tides
I take it with greed
into my hands
when I return with my
pride, wrapped up in
heaving bundles
her eyes are downcast
as she says
what good is all of this
useless sustenance?
and, throwing my ring into the sea,
tells me she will always be here
she knows she will always be
greater than any mountain my ship
could sail around
no sooner would the ring return
from it’s ocean crypt
than would all her riches
leave her palace fortress, her great walls
she tells me she has
no use
for wheat
her list of grievances
extends beyond these things
longer than the Silk Road, it rests
somewhere against the bleak horizon
I leave the fool I thought I loved
with a wealth of bad ideas
slouching towards the waves
come and find me
if you are ever hungry
for a lowly captain’s embrace
my fallen conqueror, my despot
I’ll be hiding
somewhere
in morning sunlight
south of the arctic sea
drowning in my fields
of gold and wheat
