After The Marriage Poem by Ashley Akari

Sit in the jasmine-scented garden,
In the night heavy with insect voices
And mellow-sounding flutes.
Sit still in the walled oasis,
In the cool tent of darkness—
Shut from the chaos of clamouring thought
And the sacrilege of eyes.

Here the weary winds sleep,
Like children, in the cherry trees
And the stars swim like gleaming goldfish
In the black lake of sky.
Here the fountain falls softly,
Like the sobbing of a lost child,
Like the weeping of a lonely heart,

Like the crying of the Emperor’s beautiful girls.

Girls, who like you,
Were too beautiful, too graceful—
Too young.
Plucked from the finest boughs,
They blossomed for a day, a day—
And vanished with the morning.

Such is the fate of those who find favour with the Emperor.

But you, you cannot die.
Life has had its birth
And the Sun is yet a joy to your eye.
You were made for a good man’s love,
And the cradling of tiny bodies.

But beauty must have its glory
And a man must have his desire—
Accept the comfort of your father’s lies;
The mirage is sweeter than the reality.

Forget the walls, the royal mask
The peril of thought, of movement.
Forget Love’s desperate lies
And Freedom’s false illusions—
This opulent prison is happiness,
And honour a substitute for love.

Drown the troubling musings—
Life is short and the heart is treacherous….

Listen to the night'gales singing.