The Temptress' Fortress Poem by Michael Ardizzone

Confused by your deadly art
my friends and foes have come and gone
and still you deftly pick apart
the secrets I have left alone.

The spirits of both here and now
flirt sprightly with your gilded breast
and dreams of truth and hopes of love
are crystallized in amethyst.

To make this stone, to turn this rock-
your soul into a pleasant beast
I've worked and worked to break the trap
that you have set to guard your feast

But food and wine will not fulfil
a hope so starved, a dream unfed
'cause strength has drained with naught to kill
and hope has withered as it's bled.

So statues now astride my grave
will sing again a silent song
of loves once had, of strength most grand
of rights once made against a wrong.