Fate Was A Daughter

You appeared surrounded by ecstatic worshippers
Like an orgiastic goddess in search of a kingdom,
And when I saw you my reason flew out as a bird
So that stripped of my armour, my insanity was revealed.

You spoke in a voice that soothed the waves
And forbade the winds blow and I was your slave.
Like a hero of antiquity I invented a dance
And drowned in a cask of honey as I rejoiced.

How the gods must have laughed
For they alone have the power of prophecy
And knew that I had only created a phantom
To play out a primitive drama.

So now I wear the helmet of darkness
As I wait at the river of woe to forget,
For the prayers of lovers are seldom answered
And the ritual use of wine cannot erase memories.

You spoke in the voice of a mortal woman
Softly, like the rustling of oak leaves,
And something inside me broke with a sound
Like the plucking of a lyre string.

For you took revenge for my vanity
And you defended your chosen man
Making him your heir as you scorned me
And threw my bones behind you.

So finding myself in a place of many terrors
I went and whispered to a hole in the ground
That fate was a daughter too young to marry
Yet too beautiful to be free.