The Beautiful and Unmerciful Daughter of the King

O woe before I was king
I was an errant knight
a loitering about
the wasteland you see
And that’s when I came upon her
a maiden I thought
in dire distress
and in sore need of me

Save my children
she did cry
from the brute down yonder
under the lauralie tree
And I did this married woman
a good deed that day
and dispatched the lout
to eternity

For payment
her young sons
worshiped me
like the father they long deserved
They made a victor’s wreath
out of ivy and wild flowers
and gently placed it
on my peaceful head
Come nightfall
she took me to her bed

Many years later
when my father’s crown
was placed over my serene brow
a fair and beautiful maiden
came riding
And she swore a vow.
A vow so baneful
and so full of dread
it left deep furrows
on my…