Dana's Story Book
You haven't forgotten, my husband I tell Tonight I'm to be the sight and the smell, and the renaissance of the intelligent creature, the monster, the episode that did not feature the wars and battles of all the good men and the women resolving it, all in their ken When everything came down to battle or lose some wrought, some wept, and others did choose To take up the sword in untrained fashion, the battle to wage, to war with great passion and fight they did bravely, with ever the face of the warrior, that Rome would endeavour erase In the nights they now lull their husband to sleep they bind him and gag him and leave him to keep in wonderful insights he led them thus bound, His wives fighting for him, his legacy sound. Without need for vengeance, his children home safe. Twenty wives go, and he bound to chafe And when they return, later that night, After battle they meal, clean their wounds and their sight They loosen his bounds, clean him, feed him as well, And cheerfully talk of their mission and quell His fears of losing just one of his dears, the women who've lived with him most of his years The leader among them, whom he taught the sword Sits down beside him, says listen, my lord and tells him adventures he missed in the fight He listens in awe of the tricks played with might Of men so deceived, of girls undiscovered Of towns saved by enemy plans all uncovered. One tale of a mistress who told them no good And led them to ambush in neighbouring wood And many the allies of woe and of folly to hear the bells ringing in this hamlet jolly When afterward, even though tricked, they did reign Then spirited back, covered long with the stain Of blood that did seep into thoughts clear and muted And afterward all celebrations eluded For paying the price of defending their homes Left them the nightmares to fill many tomes The husband hears all of her tales in succession And remembers the night of her first confession. The light in her eyes as she loosened his bindings Her triumphs, her tortures, her losings and findings I love you she said and so do we all and we plan everything to have none of us fall we want you to know something we've never told and it means that you'll carry a secret 'til old Tonight, we'll be cloaked in the solstice parade, We twenty are warriors, the famed night brigade that fights off the Romans with such great successes Yet lovingly weeps over lost youth and tresses We leave every scene of our battles in conquest not leaving a trace of whom brave men revere, lest the leavings do see trace or cast of our grace and give us away to those who would face Us in battle at home when we cannot prepare In time to fend off the demons that dare Attempt to come find us in compromised state And level the innocents locked in our gate So stand in our way for the look of it once, and see what the enemy sees when it fronts us in battle, dear, yes it is just and forthright for them to see nothing but men in their sight Listening, though, they will hear the fine breath of woman and animal just before death we are gentle, and swift, and do not linger. To death's winged door, we deliver the winger. So now you know why, and dear you must keep, Our secret of how we elude Rome's night sweep We ride after battle to wood and to cover, Revert women's clothing, return to discover, Who lives among trusting and wrecked, ravaged faces, Who dies by our hands, leaving no one with traces Of memories, no witnesses left who can tell Our tactics, our secrets, our fair matrons' hell. We live with our secrets, our castle, our ken, By daylight, the Romans pass by, search for men No bard tells our tales, our battles or loves, Our cloaking serves well, our hoods, armor, gloves, Our followers, all men and women included No one can name them, not one excluded nor can they tell, from whence come they here, nor our warriors' secret, the source of our fear Our warring won't harm you, our husband and lord. We are saving great rivers for our children to ford Their futures will have not just rivers but sky Our homeland will never be Roman to ply When nightfall brings us to fight like the gods, We never have wanted to leave you at odds. Our secret revealed, we've come now to mend you. Allied with you now, we seek to defend you We can't be revealed, we don't torture or maim a life is swift taken with our precise aim by all of us, well trained, all aspects rehearsed, All manners of battle completely well-versed. Do you know that you'll father a new order of kings Our delightful evenings will bring forth great things And they will be hidden until it is time For the day of ascendance to a future sublime Be aware now dear husband not to go forth in battle you must not be killed, you shant gain the saddle for we will protect you from death or from life, whichever is needed, the name of one wife need merely be spoken, and we will appear to this promise, eternally we will adhere to ensure your survival, to carry our lore to rule in benevolence for six decades more I assure you with twenty that you must remain here As we need to be sure that you give them no fear Of your highness's likelihood to remain living. Our children require your years to them giving I must go now, assist the next mother to yours, to replenish the dearth of our people from wars. Of life and of love, I must go and forsake you, Sleep, gentle one, sleep and we shall awake you Upon our return, with news of the land Good night dear. I see as my lips touch your hand that you are not willing to yet know the man which you must become to live with our stand Listen, we know that we're not your equal, In battle you can't rival, even in sequel, That our good training, you did rightly begin, That we have surpassed it, learned far beyond then If nothing else, hear this, our greatest king Our eldest fight right alongside us and sing The obstacles you are not made for, the duel Stay, let your mind be prepared for the rule What difference it makes that we are not men Aren't you safer with us here so close in your den? All possible entrances our troupe observes By day and by night, three shifts and reserves He watched on that night as his wives let him think They dressed up in costumes for parade, fox and mink The bear on the floor took on a new life It became solstice costume for his thirteenth wife The king set to memory the news, just as broken Each night as he lay, bound to keep it unspoken Each night as they parted, they each lay a kiss On his brow, on his eyelids, on the face they would miss In their journeys, adventures, returns home each night To tell him of every encounter and fight Til one day just ten of them did so return The rest, killed in battle, their bodies did burn To keep the deep secret of the King's night brigade He dressed in disguise, to watch the parade Of ashes, to most their admirers unknown The king only knew of the theft of his home Unable to outwardly tell of his grief He elected a son and a daughter as chief To go among all, dressed as soldiers, promoted As the first team, warrior siblings, and quoted The words of his dear parted wives as his own Brought life to their legacy, and hope for the throne. His children he paired two by two and then trained That their lives might never be fettered and chained And untold the secrets he fathomed to share His ten living wives led new armies with care Still secret, the older battalions, yet strong The younger battalions lived open and long The kingdom as such for centuries flourished Long after Rome fell, its children it nourished And continued traditions of sibling-led legions That continued to keep its folk safe in all regions So, centuries later when hence came the new Who sought to impose inequity, favour for few Having now fought with women and skin of all shade For such generations as their history had made This kingdom did say, you are wrong to implore us To impose such an order would slight those before us Our brothers and sisters all fight side-by-side To change our bright culture would hasten the tide Of our self-destruction, our lack of defense We cannot allow this, we've worked too long hence To strengthen our country and foster its power The thing you suggest would our strength soon devour So devils of gender and race wars desisted, Decided to move on to work less resisted And found such places in the travels of time That gave them the fodder to foster their crime But yet lives the place, once delivered by wives That cannot be split by examples of lives Lived in battle with forces of much greater evil Than armies of Romans, or Saxons medieval The greatest of battles is yet being fought Over most of the world, the warriors are wrought From the blind and the weary who need easy outs To save them from thinking for very long bouts And giving them something or someone to blame For all of the cultural heresy, shame, And partisan ventures that have not one gain But to foster the greed of the shallow and vain So step up, all warriors, your inner wars won You'll have much more future, devoid of the gun There are much better answers than gender and race Much better answers that we all can embrace And now we accept that all beings can be Our own true legions, in fights to be free And so, thinking of them all once and inclusive How can the evil be ever intrusive? The legions we make keep the bigots away From inside and out, our hearts cannot sway No matter how much the evil seems to offer We are the champions, for peace we now prosper. The kingdom of legions of siblings imbues In our hearts, the siblings all genders and hues The place is not myth, nor fancy nor fiction The place is in each of us, our great conviction We live, each of us, mixed races' memorials Rushing past lives, in conflicting tutorials The truth, on the surface, may seem too complex But in truth it is only the lies that perplex The lies make the demons of conflict alive To what end do the demons continue to thrive? To conquer us? What would they do with our spoils? To subjugate us? Who could want all our foils? The species reacts to too many members With many responses, and one of them renders The like as the different, the friend as the foe To keep populations curtailed and just so We don't need these methods, or war, just to gain Reduced population, we have means and reign To execute choice in the masses we breed By not bringing more than the number we need And the problems arise when all that is noticed Is lack of same choice in others, and focused Design to invade, through sheer population And force all the others to find trepidation Fathered and mothered by all sorts of beings, Species reacts to threats by not seeing That all will come in, and all not go out. And somehow, the next generation will shout And hear the same focus, to not overfill The pockets of nature and cause the great spill In the waters off coasts with no life left to save The children will all bear the marks of the grave So fearing invasion by uncommon culture Is not the fine answer, but takes us to vulture And careful we must be to not fall down from it We are the last hope, the last tack and grommet That holds it together, the lake and the earth The sky and the stars, the plenty and dearth So come back whenever you need to remember Our friend the King, his legions dismember The hatred and greed, the vulture and sword The vanity, shallow and ugly, untoward The place we retreat to in hunger and fears In weariness, pushed by our lives beyond tears Remember these legions, assembled and strong They live within you, and fight hard and long You are the warrior, your effort is here Now see all the obstacles faced with less fear The war against bigotry cannot be won With any brave soldiers, yes even one Fighting for evil, the plague and the gain Of money, of substances, malice and pain Ask for the healing, the answers we need To call the solutions that will defy greed And in all our battles what can we hence heed, to keep every legion's remembrance fair deed. Remind me, next time that we meet, of the thought That the value of legions is not in wars fought But just in the fact of their wanting to climb Out of victimization, and out of all time To live in our minds as reminders of when We choose poorer answers, and so we can then Make all the better, the future our mend And place ourselves back in the natural blend ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Copyright © 1998 Dana Lynné Rice, All Rights Reserved ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dana's Poems Page | Back to top of this page |
