Swift Arthur

King Arthur had a lightning rod. Guinevere found him trying. His vassals though profoundly odd were far more satisfying. In martial arts he did excel. At other trades his plying Could never suit his ego well -- one often found him sighing. Whenever he returned from war, he was the day's sensation; But evening found him sad and sore, insensate to persuasion. Sometimes he tried, and tried his best, to rise to the occasion, But instanter fell back to rest. His queen must feign elation. The thing that made it all so strange, he thought himself a charmer. The king, it seems, a bit deranged, was fearful he might harm her. She tried to be a faithful wife, avoiding page and farmer; But Arthur would not, on his life, ever remove his armor. "Swift Arthur" appeared previously in Fantasy & Terror 9, 1986. It will be collected for the first time in my forthcoming collection The Ocean's Tryst and Other Metrical Tales of Heroic Fantasy.