a diptych of poems

ELEGY FOR A SUNKEN CITY
The city seemed so empty
when you weren't here.
I promised I'd return, didn't I?
Didn't I promise I'd rescue you?
But I fought my way back
to our city,
our home,
and there was nothing left but silence.

Of course I drowned it.
Of course I shattered the floodbanks--
they are,
after all,
my floodbanks, because this city
is mine,
and there is nothing here
worth saving
without you.
They said you'd left
so I did what I had to.
I let the ocean
reclaim her own.

Perhaps they'll remember me as a hero:
perhaps, as the waves crash through the marble streets,
they'll tell themselves stories
of how I sacrificed my city to save the world.
But I didn't. I sacrificed it because
I hoped I'd drown with it.

The waves are calm now,
the screams of my city finally silenced.
It's oddly peaceful,
here alone with the gulls
and my thoughts
in the dead city beneath the sea.
I hope you'll come back home.



ANOTHER CASTLE
You promised me, when you fled,
you'd come back and rescue me.
I never promised I'd wait.
Did you think I would?

I have no time for you to lead your armies
to glorious victory, nor to
defeat my captors in single combat.
I know this prison better than
I know myself.
Did you think it would
hold me?
Did you hope it would?

Life, I'm afraid, is not so glamorous:
no one will thank you for your conquests.
No one will sing your triumphs.
I never asked for war in my name,
for blood to be spilt on my behalf.
I was never going to stay
and you,
my love,
were never a hero.