The Oath

RANI MATUK

 

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Here lies a covenant that few shall ever take

A promise made – a promise lost – or forgotten

Do no harm at the very least

Yet, harm harbors no hard feelings and does not mind a visit

     once in a while

Recidivism in its primal form

From Charlemagne to another to the father to the son

Now and never hold your peace

 

Remember when we had just begun?

You told me I was but a missionary to grapple for humanity!

Tempting with the ornate trappings of honor, nobility, and service

Misleading with a slew of lavender vagaries

A pilfer of the nominal dignity that was still in my back pocket

A harbinger of the dissolution of benevolence

How soon one forgets

How soon life turns the other cheek!

 

The sun will rise and fall, as it does and as they say

You, the eternal spinster –

will coax another with your piercing jasmine and venom oils 

     and your nauseating nostalgia from yesteryear

I will retire and perish over canyons – long forgotten

But not you fair and formidable oath…

not you.

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