Inspired by the Joust

I.

At the round table every lord equal
nobility and honor our valorous ideals
both before love and lady victory alike.
"Not I!" Not this knight who's forsaken seal.

Only pledge is to self and desire.
My vows are secret hidden among men.
I wear a badge of chivalry for power.
If to advantage I'll betray kith and kin.

If not I shall be loyal to all
if all remains serving my purpose.
Left-handed treachery, skulduggery employed
to take the fair lady and all royal purses.

Among the bandits and whores
I stayed chiefly in the latter.
Raising rebels blessed by sorcery
all enchanted, arrow to scaling ladder.

Under the dark moon we made assault.
To attack the castle we filled in the moat
swell with bodies of the king's realmsmen
here is your duke, your count, and your pope.

The battering rams crashed open walls
as the trooping men crashed open maidens.
Old ones trampled and children were taken.
Soon our pockets will be silver and gold laden.

II.

Red cord in a window below the spire.
A princess herself behind vile treachery.
She crosses a leg looking down her nails calmly
while death resounds a dance down her own gallery.

On her balcony messenger doves released;
outside her door palace guard fall in turn.
Sorrow on painted face not a single tear true
in bridal lace awaiting arrival of her new sovereign.

The rebel lord appeared in her chambers
embracing their secret compact now unveiled.
But her kiss poisoned and in her skirt hidden daggers
proclaiming to the fallen knight how his plan had failed.

"I have been under terror of a tyrant
do not be foolish to think I'd suffer yet another?"
With false steps from her craft he lunged in sudden rage.
Dodging to the side she poked him deftly with twin daggers.

"By tonight I shall seduce your captains
with that I allow you to die before your queen.
By this time tomorrow cousins from across the sea
shall set on land to seek out every last of your fiends."

Then a noble son appeared at her door
our princess ran right into his arms quickly.
They said goodbye on his return they would marry
then she let him out from her window to escape safely.

III.

A rebel captain risen in rank
ravaged queen on four poster bed.
Her only thought of contacting the cunning lady
at first crow for tea of removing this impurity instead.

Within the hall of the keep
a perversion of royal coronation
commenced. A recreant is crowned king
as his new queen plots the welcomed invasion.

The host content in their work.
Every noble defender's head on a pike.
They began the feast with only the dead
to stand watch on the tower. Such horrendous sight

began to unfold as they dined.
Serving girls preferred over the main course
in the positions wine forms in the minds of men
which turned queen into whore in her very own court.

Hope abandoned so little protest
soft cries now heard until our queen
made the sign and her ladies sealed the doors
the rebel host left to die alone to only their screams.

Distant cousins come to see the keep in flames
with a future king who greets his queen with a kiss
and as our story ends never try to quite forget that
if you plan to capture a castle beware of the plotting princess.