The Hostage
I dream beyond these battlements
Of islands in the west
Beyond the strings and sacraments
That occupy the rest
My gentle sister, soft and pure
Admires her silken sleeves
A subtle breeze begins to stir
The eucalyptus leaves
And like the leaves that tremble so
My mind will dance toward
A distant archipelago
Or ships that I may board
And though the only ship I meet
Is drawn upon a page,
In books or verses I repeat
These thoughts I can't assuage
I dance in sprays of golden flowers
That sprout along a stream
I walk along the shore for hours
Til night begins to gleam
For I'm too young to marry now
But houses will decree
I ask the wind to try, somehow,
to take me to the sea
-For Isaiah Zerbst's 'Edmund Blair Leighton' contest and inspired by his painting with the same title
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