Wayne Michael DeHart   (June, 2021)

 

May 17, 1811, City of Leeds, England

 

Said the Lad to the Lady:

Dearest Elise, the blue in my skies,
I bring to you this birthday surprise.
It’s neither silver nor gold,
but this day I’ve been told
it will bring tears to your emerald eyes.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Dear Aidan, the light in my darkest of nights,
the one who has turned my wrongs into rights,
any gift you bestow
will delight me I know,
you’re the finest of my acolytes.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

Please my lady, please my love,
I fervently pray to the gods above
that you not think of me
as just one of the three
who serve the needs that you speak of.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

But what would I say to your peers in grey
if I took for granted what they do each day?
Your heart is pure and true
and I highly treasure you,
and so I wish not to lead you astray.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

What am I hearing, what might you mean
when your words cut like daggers, swift and keen?
I delivered each time
you searched for a rhyme
when you wrote that poem for the wake of Colleen.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

My sweet lad, for that I’m in debt to you,
your words so tender, offered on cue,
but Colleen would feel so sad
if she knew her young man had
used them to barter, used them to woo.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

When my mother abandoned me at the age of four.
It was you who found me outside your door
and welcomed me inside,
though my spirit had died,
and I couldn’t have been blessed any more.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Then listen and learn from the one who knows
why a woman with the love of a Burns red rose
chose this place, this face,
she knew would embrace
her laddie when her ill-timed sickness arose.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

My father died in the war before I was born
and mother Colleen cried every morn
missing his courage, his grace,
missing the smile she couldn’t erase,
near the end, most cheerless, lost and forlorn.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Ten years have passed and it’s time you knew
that Colleen had a sister and a brother too.
His name was Alec Erick
and when Colleen got sick
he came from Scotland to bid her adieu.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

I have an uncle, is that what you say?
Where is he now? Will he come this way?
And an aunt as well?
Please, I pray you tell,
why at fourteen, do I learn this today?

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Dear Alec Erick, I must sadly report
has gone to his Maker, his life cut short,
not unlike his sister Colleen,
he left the earth at only nineteen,
leaving you here for me to support.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

My mother was nineteen at the time she departed?
She gave birth to me when her life had just started?
I arrived here at four,
she lived eight years more,
This news is not for the fainthearted!

Said the Lady to the Lad:

No, I meant like his sister, he died far too young,
Colleen was twenty-five when her church-bells rung.
He was seventeen, in Glasgow for school,
when he came back that day to Liverpool
to hear once more, her song left unsung.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

Well, that’s a relief, her age I mean,
that she didn’t die when she was nineteen.
Would have had me at twelve,
a thought I’ll just shelve.
Go on, and I won’t intervene.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

You are so young and it’s confusing I know.
So prepare yourself for an emotional blow.
Colleen and her brother,
from one to the other,
once viewed their older sister as foe.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

Though it’s still far from clear, it would appear
that this sister is someone I don’t want to be near.
I’m glad she went away
to no one’s dismay,
at best insincere, a woman to fear.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Dear Aidan, she never left, she’s not gone.
The poet would say she’s hither, not yon.
Colleen saved you for her
and lost her own sir
when he left one morning at dawn.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

You mean he left for the war, a hero so brave,
a man for his country his life he gave?
It’s sad I never knew him at all,
still unborn at the time of his fall.
She lost her sir – my dad – when he went to his grave.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Colleen wasn’t married, nor did she bear a child.
She was a maiden lass, pure, undefiled.
Her sir walked away
when you went to stay.
She made you her life when her sister last smiled.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

My mother Colleen did not give me life?
The man who died at war- she was not his wife?
Those tears that she shed
when she lay in her bed,
pierced my heart, like the blade of a knife.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

The brave man was not his wife, but he was your Dad.
Her tears were for you, so don’t feel sad.
Abandoned you were,
but not by her.
Your Dad was another woman’s Sir Galahad.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

So for ten long years, I held hate in my heart
toward a woman who saved me from some cheap tart?
The world is cruel
and I played the fool,
I’m young but I’m strong, I’ll tear her apart.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Cast aside your anger, it’s ill-mannered and wrong.
You were birthed by her sister, alone and not strong.
Just six weeks after his flag was unfurled,
you picked up his mantle and entered the world.
And now at this hour, I’m singing his song.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

You knew him before Colleen left me here?
You know where she is, this woman I jeer?
Tell me straight out
what’s this all about
and please be perfectly clear.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

I’ve no place to hide, no place to run,
I am your mother and you are my son.
Your peers are your brothers,
from unknown young mothers
who gave them up when their demons won.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

So it wasn’t fate I was left at your door.
Colleen did for you, what you’ve done twice more.
In time I’ll be proud to be
an equal as one of the three,
but how do I fare, losing the one I live for!

Said the Lady to the Lad:

You’ve not lost a thing, you’ve found your mother, a friend,
A new book has opened, its ending yet to be penned.
When you see me that way
in the light of the day
you will find fitting presents to bring and to send.

Said the Lad to the Lady:

Dearest Mother, the blue in my skies,
I bring to you this birthday surprise.
It’s neither silver nor gold,
it’s my heart that you hold,
seeing the tears in your emerald eyes.

Said the Lady to the Lad:

Dear Son, the light in my darkest of nights,
the one who has turned my wrongs into rights,
this gift of your heart
is a true chance to be part
of your Galahad dad, the finest of Knights.

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