Samson Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

To you I gave a crown
when I brought you to my bed
to share in my renown
on what was then my throne –
to rule, but never in my stead:
I rule alone.

With honeyed words you took
my generosity, my pride,
my strength: took with a smile, a look,
what once I alone had known
– but subsequently could not hide –
and so you brought me down.

But you who took my freedom and my sight
can now not see the growing strength in me,
not love in which I once knew such delight,
but hatred which takes heed of no man’s plea.