Bride to Be (part three)

Bride to Be 

(three)

Why, he said to me

When guests arrive and all the household

Join the feast

And the women, those

unplighted, keep them to their couch, apart

You with your eyes demure

Sipping long from a single cup

Watching, under lashes, mantling

Changeable, like the leaves

Lifted to silver by a breeze

I know by this you think on things

Think

For me, upon a riddle

And said he Daughter then

My name

In a soft and certain way

On my pommel crept the merlin, catching with her toes

For dismounted, dared bend near him

I…to see his knifepoint map upon the ground

“Say that I raise an army…in this your father pledges me

To stay his hand, not interfere

And my brothers…I mean those men loyal to our house

Will come at my command…here”

He took my elbow, as to steady me

“Have you ever seen the lay of the land

That you would know one neighbor from another…thus”

I saw what he had drawn

Bride to Be

Bride to Be (part four)

Explication

(2018, Stephanie Foster)