The Beautiful Unmerciful Daughter

The Beautiful and Unmerciful Daughter of The King

by

Jon

Presco

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 regal forehead

‘O father look what you have done
when you did my mother fair
a good deed
that was such a dreadful thing
done unto to me
For I a princess
was born outside
your realm of errant knights
and thus I swear not one
will survive
my terrible blight

You have sewn the seeds
of your own destruction.
I la Belle Daughter
of a king
will have no merci
on thee and thine
Not this day
nor any day
to come

One by one
I will beguile
every good knight
till every man
who lifts a sword
will only do so
in defense of me

Come nightfall
your once brave
and now disloyal knights
will be found
on yonder hillside
with lilies
placed upon their pale
once rosy cheeks
You best be warned
I will
have my fun

The Beautiful and Unmerciful Daughter of the King

by

Jon Presco