Garland

What worth do minds like Renaissance polymaths or faces like Adonis have,

Above hearts like his?

The rest of them only see beauty in conquest,

But I never cared for the glittering jewels over which,

So many warriors met their deaths,

What could be rarer than,

A heart ready to burst,

Like a cacao pod when crushed,

Full of his precious life's blood?

To conquer such a heart,

Would make one richer than,

All the lords of those far-flung provinces,

What could be dearer to me than,

Holding his gaze for a moment?

I never wanted those noblemen's sons,

Who drain the life out of memorized verse,

The way their fathers slaughter innocents,

Love is just a word to those princes, in those poems about knights and maidens,

I envy the girl who sleeps in a straw hut with her lover while I'm trapped in a gilded palace,

Who wears a flower garland,

While a pearl necklace is my bondage,

I would cast off my rings and bangles,

For the boy who does not wish to be a warrior,

I will not garland the strongest man before me,

For stronger is the one whose small frame trembles with the force of the love he feels