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