ONCE UPON A TIME

Once upon a time when my heart belonged to me

When it lay fallow and grew wild as a virgin land

Bringing forth grasses and shrubs and trees

Lo, the grasses bowed to the shrubs

And the shrubs paid obeisance to the trees

And all the trees genuflected to a tree

But that tree kowtowed to none, for it was the iroko

And my conveyor to Earth was it

So, one day came a sheen caramel-skinned lady

The one with the long and spotless legs

That invited eyes to a feast of lust poised on pinnacles

Yet my heart was with me, for I wouldn’t let go

Over to my side she sashayed, and held my hand in hers

Still, my heart remained mine, for I wouldn’t let go

Then her mouth went agape, calling angels down

As she sang me a serenade, her voice mocking the nightingale’s

Thereafter, my heart ceased to be mine

For she’d mowed the grasses as well as the shrubs

Installed herself as the iroko, to which all were subject

Cultivated the land with blossoming flowers

Chrysanthemum and daffodils and jasmine, the tale went

Of how I had become a leasee in my own land, she the leasor

“Give me back my land,” I wept and pled

She did, but my heart would never be wholly mine again

~~~Omoya