That Smile
Her father sent her off to wed
the husky son of a hundred counts.
He took her in his arms, she bled
her credentials out upon his bed.
He smiled.
Six strapping sons, three dead at birth
four daughters later, the silence mounts
a siege before what’s left of worth;
the sea, the sky, the endless earth
still smile.
Somewhere beneath the castle floor
the masons are bricking the crypt of counts.
The catacombs are quiet once more;
just the faintest echo behind a door.
She smiles.
March 2011
Posted for Magpie Tales~#59
Leonardo da Vinci [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Holy Moly!! This sucked me right in. Great description and depth. Excellent.
ReplyDeleteThis may be the most apt description for the smile on her face as I have ever read. finally life is hers and hers alone.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a jaundiced view! I think she is smiling because she sees a shiny object, but I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteTen children. Yikes. If it were me being sold off as a brood mare, I would only smile if he tripped and fell down the stairs.
release! I particularly like the last line. So she bricked him up in the end did she?!
ReplyDeleteyup. donna got it right. holy moly.
ReplyDeletea very wonderful write, she bled
her credentials out upon his bed. slapping head!!
xo
erin
Ten children and still smiling. Whatta gal.
ReplyDeleteBut is it a smile fom the grave? Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteAn intriguing piece!
ReplyDelete~laurie
What an interesting take...couldn't stop reading. The smile of a survivor! Great piece. Vb
ReplyDeleteI like this, hedgewitch. I've never thought her smile was a happy one--more one of indifference.
ReplyDeleteThat first stanza is just amazing!
ReplyDeleteOof! You, er, nailed, this one. Very very nice!
ReplyDeleteBeing sent off to wed would have been terrible. But really, ten children is not a horror - it may have been the only reason she wanted to smile! :) I thought this poem really reached back in history quite well and made us see what some lives were really like!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why I liked this poem but I do.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I’m fed up trying to find reasons for everything and then explaining them.
Plant a seed and let it grow into whatever the hell it likes.
Thanks all--have some real life stuff to do, but I'll try to come visit and see everyone's take on this one as soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteMysterious smile, no longer! Murder, She Wrote?
ReplyDeleteBrava Lady Mona ... brava!
ReplyDeleteOh, so good! I am clapping!! I totally love it. Sometimes you have to wait a bit, but then.......oh that smile!
ReplyDeleteShe who laughs last, endures. For centuries, we've been trying to figure out that smile. DaVinci's code for it, with a thousand spoofs launched from its faint contours. You take is contemporary and old, that no matter how we try to control her, breed her (heavens, " he took her in his arms, / she bled
ReplyDeleteher credentials out upon his bed" -- what a rape of a wedding night), paint her, Woman -- like the Dude-- abides. Like the Lord who "survives the rainbow of HIs will" in Lowell's "Quaker Graveyard," dear Mona surpasses the aegis of her fame. - Brendan
What depth!!
ReplyDeleteIntense and some creativity. I forgot to smile for once here. I have goosebumps all over!!
Very well written
Hugs xox
Certainly grabed my attention, hard hitting but effective! Sombre take on prompt.
ReplyDeleteGosh Brendan certainly did a riff
ReplyDeletewith this material. Great poem,
and for many of the reasons noted,
good historical references, great
POV from the distaff side of the'
bed chamber, revenge served cold
and all that, like Catherine of Aragon,
a matriarch with a secret; and as
to that smile, that smirk, they say
dentists were for shit in those time.
Splendid poem!
ReplyDeleteLove this! My third favorite (in order of reading) take on Lisa - perfect!
ReplyDeleteSo, was she smiling because the masons were bricking him in? Great Magpie.
ReplyDeleteTen children would make me weep. Must be a smile of a madwoman.
ReplyDeleteLove your take, hedgewitch. : /
The most original take yet, I think. This gave all sorts of pleasures.
ReplyDeleteGenuine poetic voice. Rare.
ReplyDeleteSo powerful. I had a strong reaction to this: first goosebumps, then tears. Neither is going away too quickly, either.
ReplyDeleteDear Hedgewitch: There definitely is something cooking under that smile! And to think it is alive all this time after all the counts are finished being counts; but who's counting? Mona may be...?:)
ReplyDelete