Fate Was A Daughter Poem by Jones Jones

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 some hero of antiquity i invented a dance
rejoicing and drowning in a cask of honey.

how the gods of tragedy must have laughed
for they alone had the power of prophecy,
and knew that i had only created a phantom
to play out this primitive drama.

now i wear a helmet of darkness
as i wait at the river of woe trying 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 at sunrise.

and so you took revenge for my vanity
defending your chosen man
making him your heir while scorning me
and throwing my bones behind you.

so finding myself in a city 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.