Silver and Roses, Henna and Myrrh

THE ENNUNMENT CANTO 7

Hennamarn's Censer in the Temple of Vornda

Reviewing hastily the history

Of our relations---Hennamarn's and mine---

I will reveal the entire mystery

Before I think to pen another line.

Years earlier, I’d come with Shandra Queen

To Vornda on a holiday, for fun.

Still wed to Udi, I had not foreseen,

That Ajinblambia would be the one

To force me from her bed and take her hand,

To make herself her husband and her King,

Extending her own kingdom to each land,

To every ocean, to each living thing.

In Vornda, Hennamarn my fortune told,

“This year a King will mount the throne of Ung.”

I thought she’d meant that Udi’s realm would fold

And that usurpers’ banners would be hung.

I’d scoffed, dismissing as a wicked fraud

The oracle the sibyl had pronounced.

But it proved true. I verily was awed

That she’d the future faithfully announced.

Now I’d apologized and was her pupil.

In mantic arts I would matriculate.

I must own to it, for I have my scruple.

The total truth I thus articulate.

Yes, now, though abbess, once again must I

Unto a dame superior bend a knee.

Indeed as an apprentice must I try

To do as Hennamarn required of me.

An urn of jade and gold filled full of leaves

Stood in the inner sanctum of her fane,

And often there, in flowing gown and sleeves,

She added embers from a pot with chain.

So fragrant smoke would waft the room around

Nor could a soul avoid it to inhale,

But must breathe deeply fumes that did abound

And thus intoxicated quake and quail

As Hennamarn her mystic mantras sang.

’Twas frightening a sight as I’d yet seen,

For that her face did seem to suffer pang,

Her disembodied spectre to careen

And flap and rock and wobble in mid-air.

“My goodness, is she human?” I did muse,

For, surely, question her I did not dare.

“Is she a Vrikshaya? Is this some ruse

Whereto I’ve fallen victim by mistake,

Or even by design? But who’d contrive

To jeopardize my person or to make

A laughingstock of me or corpse alive?”

What was the nature of the leaf she smoked?

Was this a mere narcotic, evil weed?

Was this some opium, nepenthe-soaked,

Some balmy balsam or hypnotic seed?

It takes no saint to entertain a vision

Of highest Heaven when she’s doped and drugged.

Far be it from me to look with misprision

Or blandly just my shoulders to have shrugged,

When, seeing Hennamarn herself entránce

And hearing how she ranted and she raved,

When witnessing her wild enchanted dance,

Quick liberty more than aught else I craved.

She scared me. Yes, she did. I was affrighted.

Was I to be her prisoner and slave?

For surely Shandra’d never have invited

If she’d known in what straits myself she gave.

The paradox was that I little wist

Whereby to extricate me from the grip

Of Hennamarn, and nevermore to tryst

With her in Vornda, nevermore by ship

Down Liscarn’s Vloshca River to come sailing

From Vavlu, Ufzu’s capital and seat,

Ne’ermore to step with habit meekly trailing

Into her shrine in Vornda in bare feet.

My cell, scarce ten feet long and two feet wide,

Was only five feet high, but had three rooms.

The bath was two by two and, at its side,

The cloakroom, two by two, as if for brooms,

Let me do off my habit and my shoe

With difficulty only, and my bed

Did occupy a space of six by two.

Erect I could not stand but must my head

Bend downwards as the ceiling did allow.

There was no window, nor was there much light.

Inside the cell, I panic felt enow

But tried to hold clear reason in my sight.

Had I desired to flee, it seemed belike

That I should not escape in anywise.

The cell had no devices, nought to strike

An object or a person with, or prise

A plank or door or weather-strip withal.

There was no prick or auger, wrench or drill

That I could use to get me to the hall

And then to climb beyond the nearest hill.

So it meesemed I’d have to wait and serve

The dark-haired lady oracle at length.

Had I the wit, the courage and the nerve?

Did I possess sufficiency of strength?

My stay in Vornda had begun as science,

As training that would elevate my mind.

I hadn’t come to manifest defiance

Or argument with Hennamarn to find.

But as I saw these happenings, alarm,

An apprehension that I couldn’t name,

Did prompt me to deliver me from harm

By any measure whereupon I came.

My only venue it appeared to me

Would be to seize her when she lay enthralled

Within her sanctum, as I bent a knee

To offer my obeisance when she called.

She was a lady slender, slight and short,

Scarce more than but a snippet or a lass.

I should quite easily, as if in sport,

Be able her in combat to outclass,

If to resort to violence I chose.

I saw no other recourse, no way out.

So I’d lay hands on her as she did doze

Anesthesized with incense all about.

My plan was to put on her mystic gown,

Impersonating her as best I could,

As I strode spiritedly out of town,

Betaking me unto the nearest wood.

From thence I’d find a way for to return

To Shandra where she lived in Candle Tower.

By such a strategy, by such a turn,

I would retrieve my old abbatial power.

Of course, I thought, if my design miscarries,

There’ll be revenge and punishment, I know.

For she’s the kind who torments and who harries

Her every rival, enemy or foe.

Therefore, let me be certain, I resolved,

That, making bold the sibyl to assault,

Each little puzzle I have fitly solved

Ere I attack beneath the temple’s vault.

At last, one morning, Hennamarn lay still

In some deep ecstasy, unconscious, quiet,

More dead than living, quite devoid of will.

“Now is the time for me to start the riot.”

I sprang from where I sat, just like an ounce

Who’s sighted prey and seeks it for to capture.

Upon the famed clairvoyant did I pounce

At just the climax of her mystic rapture,

At just the moment when she was immersed

In the profoundest coma and narcosis.

Upon her fantasies and slumbers did I burst,

Intruding rudely on her mad hypnosis.

For warriors, if you read your history,

Are wont to charge an enemy at night.

For when they’re sleeping, it’s no mystery,

They’re hardly ready to come out and fight.

Regrettably, analogies oft fail,

For Hennamarn was not a sleeping host.

No sooner than I ventured to assail,

She stood bolt úpright, like a living ghost.

Ere I laid hands on her, her hands on me,

Nor feeble nor effete, she laid with strength.

Eftsoons she threw me on her long settee

And held me prone, immobile at full length.

A cummerbund or sash about her waist,

Of pleated purple satin, she jerked off.

Five seconds later ‘round my wrists she placed

And tied the cummerbund, nor could I doff

My makeshift manacle, regardless how

I tugged and wriggled, shrugged and wiggled. “Zounds!”

Said I unto myself, despairing now,

“My sorrow is profound. My woe abounds.”

A minute passed. Then servitors did come

And bore me off unto another cell,

Larger and lighter than the one wherefrom

I’d hoped to fly but whence I only fell.

A day passed. Servitors came to my door

Then to a courtyard where a lofty arch,

Parabola of stainless steel, curved o’er,

They caused me quite ungallantly to march.

The sibyl Hennamarn presided all,

Assigning to each servitor a chore.

Down from the arch’s apex they let fall

A chain that almost reached the ground, nor more.

Next thing I knew they’d haled me just below

And handcuffed me in leather lined with plush.

They hooked me to the chain. Up did I go,

But only very slow. They did not rush.

When that the slack all taken up had been.

A pair of plush-lined fetters they did ring

About my ankles, just below my shin.

Thereto an iron ball, a massive thing,

Did they connect with yet another chain.

Then on their windlass they the crank turned ‘round

Until that in mid-air, with stress and strain,

I hovered with the ball now off the ground.

Now I was but a chain-link dressed in black.

A hundred pounds the ball meseemed to weigh.

The servitors did pull me forth and back,

As pendulum did I begin to sway.

On either end the court, they’d hung a gong,

Ten feet it measured, huge cast iron thing,

And as I dangled, swinging swift along,

The ball did strike the gong and make it ring.

Ding, dong, ding, dong, ding, dong all morning long!

While Hennamarn triumphantly did smile.

She seemed to like the music of the gong.

Her fingers were batons conductor-style.

She nodded with the rhythm and the rhyme,

And grinned, it would appear with too much malice.

Her foot she patted as if keeping time.

“Oh, would that I could go to Eldor Palace!”

This was so painful and embarrassing!

Who would have dreamt the sibyl thus would act—

A pious abbess to keep hárassing?

I marvelled that compassion she so lacked.

Now in my heart of hearts I did diminish

The guilt I’d felt for having scoffed at her,

Yes, to my sense of shame I put a finish.

To superego I would ne’er recur.

But notwithstanding, at her mercy, I,

For having been so rash as to attempt

Escape from out her clutches, might soon die

If Hennamarn held me in such contempt.

Day in, day out, she dragged me to the court.

Her servitors would chain me with the ball.

Apparently for Hennamarn ’twas sport

To do this right within the temple wall.

No longer might I go into the fane,

Into the sanctum where the censer stood.

My only audience was when, in chain,

I spoke if Hennamarn to listen would.

She was completely disinclined to hear

When any syllable I spoke aloud.

For pleading and entreaties she’d no ear.

By threats and warnings she would not be cowed.

Was she draconian? Was she sadistic?

Was she tyrannical or was she stern?

Was this the disposition of a mystic,

Or did aught else within her bosom burn?

She kept me sev’ral weeks in my new cell,

And daily I was taken to the arch.

This was a baleful punishment to tell.

To bear such trials I didn't have the starch.

I reasoned there would shortly be an end,

For Hennamarn knew surely I’d be missed.

Then Úfzuans arriving to defend

Down Vloshca would come sailing in the mist.

They’d liberate me. They would set me free.

How they would deal with Hennamarn I rued,

A party to such evil for to be

I surely lacked the spirit and the mood.

I was delivered by Queen Shandra's folk,

But 'twasn't as I'd pictured it would be,

For one fine morning Hennamarn me woke

And said that Ufzuans had come for me.

She said that her receptionists had not

Unto the Ufzuans bared aught at all.

They therefore knew nor dot nor bit nor jot

Of what was being done behind the wall.

If I should promise not to breathe a word

About the arch and gongs, she'd let me go,

Allow me to go flying like a bird

To Vavlu. Otherwise, I'd suffer woe.

For she would tell my rescuers that I,

With unexpected winter, caught a chill,

A pleurisy whence I did ail and die,

A pulmonary sickness that did kill.

So they'd return to Shandra and report

That recently, fall'n ill, I had expired

And nevermore to Vavlu would resort.

Yea, from the stage of life I had retired.

She'd keep me in her temple all my years

To bear such mischief as she could devise.

I would spend all my midnights shedding tears

And rubbing scarlet my repentant eyes.

Therefore I vowed I wouldn't tell the Queen

The tale of all the torment and travail

I'd undergone at Vornda's distant scene,

Imprisoned in my míniscule jail.

I swore upon my rosary, my beads,

My tongue would e'er endure paralysis.

To make me talk, nor opium nor weeds

Nor wine would e'er act in catalysis.

So Hennamarn released me to the crews

That Shandra had sent down the Vloshca River

To query whether there were any news

Whereof might mystic Hennamarn be giver.

It's only as these cantos I compose,

My written record for posterity,

That I acknowledge those ungodly woes

That Hennamarn wreaked with severity.

Embarrassing to me 'tis to confess

That, half my size, wee Hennamarn had sprung

From her mad swoon's profundity to jess

My wrists behind me. Oh, how I was stung!

It was one thing that Mbambo, like an ox,

Had held me in mid-air with her right arm

And threatened with her left my ears to box,

And do much mayhem and all hellish harm,

But quite another thing 'twas that this witch,

This tiny Hennamarn, when I began

My futile mutiny, did seize and pitch

My bungling body on a long divan

And tied me tight. But so the page did turn!

Thank goodness, Shandra had sent scouts around

On ships my whereabouts that they might learn,

Returning me to Vavlu safe and sound.

Despite the bale and bane of those events,

Methought I now possessed an inner eye,

A second sight, a transcendental sense

Enabling me my abbacy to ply

With more address, enhanced maturity.

Had I now extrasensory acumen?

Might I now apprehend futurity?

Was I now paranormal, superhuman?

Or was this all compensatory thinking?

Was I redressing my humiliation,

Just fantasizing as if I'd been drinking,

Hallucinating in intoxication?

Queen Shandra, though, a synod did convoke,

And called the lords and ladies of the land,

Forgath'ring round her tables made of oak,

Ten thousand souls that made a mighty band.

Of course, she wist naught of the diary

The Fates had writ, the journal of my trials.

She saw me now as bright and fiery,

And summoned everyone around for miles

To listen to my gospel and epistle,

Defdefa's legends and theology.

I did not speak of my abrupt dismissal

From Udi's Ung, or make apology

For my forsaken post beside the Queen.

'Twas too absurd, outlandish and bizarre

A tale. The Mlians surely ne'er had seen

Such happenings upon their little star.

The throng was taken with the narrative

I did deliver in the marble tower.

My register was just declarative,

Without rhetorically confected flower.

A hundred girls joined my sorority.

I welcomed them as postulants straightwáy.

Queen Shandra exercised authority

To designate some buildings for the day,

But afterwards a handsomer demesne

Would be selected in a sacred copse,

A hurst of larch and cedar. There a fane

And convent would raise verdigrised, steep tops.

Nor she nor I foresaw that horrid war

With Vrandz, another kingdom, would break out,

That Vrandzers would beleaguer Ufzu's door,

Invading and bethinking them to rout

Our Ufzuans, despoiling them of wealth

To carry back to Emshcro, their chief town.

They honored neither Ufzu's life nor health

And Candle Tower they'd sap and tumble down.

Unused to warfare, little skilled at arms,

The Ufzuans were diffident and frighted.

Queen Shandra, notwithstanding all her charms,

Was woebegone 'midst conflict thus incited.

I can't explain the dreadful inspiration

That filled my bosom clad in cashmere habit.

Somehow I rose for to harangue the nation,

More like a lioness that like the rabbit

I normally vied in timidity.

A conflagration blazed within my womb.

In wrath's accipitrine rapidity

I'd swoop upon the enemy with doom.

As nun, of course, I might not join the ranks.

Nor sword nor lance 'twas licit that I bear,

But I could rouse and rally on the banks

Of Narni River, where the foe did fare.

Upcountry there were rugged hills and dales

That Vrandz had wisely chosen to avoid.

They'd reasoned, "Must we cross bluff cliffs and vales

And let our vim and vigor be destroyed?"

Moreover, lofty ships from Emshcro sailed

On Narni's waters, heavy-laden barges,

For Vavlu's scutcheon they would strike, impaled

With pike instead of heralds' painted charges.

Whoe'er has seen an abbess in the van,

Sidesaddle on a mare before battalions

Defending Queen and Queendom to a man,

A host upon a herd of stalwart stallions?

'Twas like unto a medíéval maid

Who led one nation to lay low another.

Should Vrandzers triumph, surely I'd be flayed,

Cast into blazes. Me in smoke they'd smother.

With antiquated engines Vrandz laid siege.

They couldn't stop the steel machinery

Built from the blueprints sent us by our liege,

Wherewith to dominate the scenery,

For Ajinblambia was duly told

That warfare had erupted on the moon.

A corps of engineers she then enrolled,

Developing designs they'd broadcast soon.

To Vavlu on light-swift computer screens

They'd astrofax the drawings and the data.

Next, Ufzuans would find the ways and means.

They'd fill omissions and correct errata.

It so did come to pass that darkling ages

That Ufzu'd whiled in somnolence and sleep

Had ended, and the incandescent pages

Of a new book before our eyes did leap.

100

Our lady King the secrets had disclosed,

Enabling Ufzu to meet ram with crane.

Wood catapults by metal bulls were dozed.

Log towers were felled by draglines made of chain.

101

Yet Ajinblambia's technocracy

But partially the victory explained.

The keen morale of my theocracy

The Ufzuans in peril had sustained.

102

Eventually the Vrandzers did retreat,

Their engines and their armaments fordone.

Their flight to Emshcro, festinate and fleet,

Confirmed to all Queen Shandra's host had won.

103

The war, Queen Shandra doubtless realized,

Had not been won but for those great machines,

But fondly she myself idealized,

Imagined me o'er rivers and ravines,

104

Aloft upon my mare, as if on cloud

Illumined by the splendor of the Sun,

I swiftly rode, magnificent and proud,

Attired in veil and habit of a nun

105

That flapped and fluttered, flying in the breeze,

Whipped by swift winds that swirled and whirled with force

Above the branches and the crowns of trees

Atremble with the hoofbeats of my horse.

106

She did commission artists to depict

This vision she did entertain and cherish.

Such canvases, such colors Shandra picked

The painting ne'er would pale, ne'er would perish.

107

'Twas seven meters high and seven long.

She had it hung in Candle Tower's main hall,

Where everyone who ever walked along

Beheld it mounted high upon the wall.

108

But that was not enough for her meseemed.

She ordered lithographic posters struck.

Ten thousand were sufficient Shandra deemed.

The bills in public places soon were stuck.

109

Wherever you might look, the prints, like oils,

My fame proclaimed. In all the far-flung regions,

My faith was planted. In a hundred soils,

It sprouted. Postulants appeared in legions.

110

A new Defdefa Convent rose and stood,

An edifice of granite fitly hewn,

With rooftops peeping o'er the bristling wood.

Thus I brought Ung's religion to the moon.

111

I was shy and ashamed to be the crux

Of this new movement, this high-flown crusade.

Had Ufzuans but seen the seams and tucks

Hid in my mantle, they had not obeyed

112

My plea for piety, my call to duty,

But I'd a ready rationalization:

This was for Ajinblambia and Udi,

Permitting them full nationalization

113

Of Ufzu's regions recently annexed

And full adoption of their gorgeous Queen,

This Vrikshaya, into the writ and text

Of charters that would satisfy her lien,

114

For verily Ung's royals were beholden.

Queen Shandra'd done an estimable deed,

Disposing her dominions, hoary, olden,

Unto their rule. Yes, Ufzu she did cede.

115

The Vrandzers' siege had lasted near a year.

They'd ruined sev'ral buildings and a village.

There'd been a skirmish here, a battle there,

A sally then, a sortie now, for pillage,

116

But, finally, their foolish, feckless war

Had been undone, dispatched with dire address.

Our reconstruction took six weeks, nor more,

Our loss five thousand talents, maybe less.

117

Ung reimbursed us. They gave us the pelf.

The buildings were rebuilt. Now rose a wall.

We monitored--Queen Shandra and myself--

Inspecting, supervising, watching all.

118

So Vrandz was rendered a dependency

Of Ung and Ufzu, pacified and tamed,

Now that the confrontation's pendency

Did end, their march into our marches lamed.

119

The saving grace, in spite of our deep sorrow,

This nunnery in grove acicular

Became a pledge and promise for the morrow.

I personally each particular

120

Of its establishment with care prescribed.

A press was raised. Both mills and factories

Were organized. Fair mottoes were inscribed.

We fashioned beads and fine phylacteries.

121

A cloakroom of black habits from our looms

Accumulated quickly. We were clad.

Rare relics we restored inside out rooms.

A hundred hagiographies we had,

122

Illuminated with Defdéfan art.

Blue irises and yellow jonquils flowered.

Well-irrigated gardens we did start,

With silence and with symmetry endowered.

123

But long I'd been from Fwascren far away.

The time to fly to Nya was now at hand,

To trek the twenty miles, and to stay

A season on Ung's continents and land.

124

Once in Dwesfesco, I'd select a maid

Ambassadress to Shandra Queen,

To act as my replacement or my aide,

Our newest convent fitly thus o'erseen.

125

She was Rijárli, thirty-year-old nun

Who'd demonstrated buoyancy and brilliance.

Amongst our sisterhood, she was the one

Who'd shown the energy and the resilience

126

To be the acting abbess on the moon.

The necessary letters I wrote too

And placed within a purse she'd offer soon

In Vavlu for Queen Shandra to review.

127

Rijarli flew Air Fwascren of a morn

To Dorgdid. There she boarded Photon VII.

The crescent moon, a copper-colored horn,

Had barely set at dawn in western Heaven,

128

When that she gathered her capacious skirt

To climb the rungs that reached the spaceship's nose.

For any jolt or sound she was alert.

Precisely on the hour, the bullet rose.

129

Some solid color astrofax machines

Aboard the silver comet had been laden.

Rijarli would install them, mount their screens

In our new convent, where a novice maiden

130

Could gather up the replicas she'd got,

Transmitted from Defdefa swift as light.

The astrofax would copy every jot,

And reproduce all colors, pale or bright.

131

Similitudes of polyvinyl formed

In three dimensions, accurate and true.

In every way they faithfully conformed

Originals and prototypes unto,

132

So that, had you beheld them, you were dumb

If someone asked you of them which was which.

E'en drew you o'er them finger, or with thumb

You touched so slightly boss or point or stitch,

133

You hadn't been quite able to declare,

"Aha! That is the genuine, and this,

The one I now am holding in the air,

But as a copy I hereby dismiss."

134

Fine works of filigree and damascene,

Lamé and peau de soie and rosepoint lace,

We'd send to the domain of Shandra Queen

So that the nuns might emulate with grace.

135

Facsimiles they'd not merely store

As sacred souvenirs inferior.

But they'd create new works. They'd fashion more,

Quite equal or perhaps superior.

136

Rijarli would the project oversee.

I would commune with her by vision phone,

Which had a screen wherein to clearly see

Your cállee, large as life or larger shown.

137

I trusted her implicitly indeed,

As though she were a daughter or a niece.

I did bethink me that our nunnish weed

Became her as a ewe becomes her fleece,

138

That her fidelity were fast and firm,

Her dedication definite, devout,

That she would serve our order for a term

Of many decades passing in and out.

139

Our lunar convent we named Carvanílli.

This is a word of Ufzu that means flower,

For all around bloomed tulip, rose and lily.

Our nunnery was like a rustic bower.

140

For many months the lunar mission throve.

'Twould be in any galaxy a jewel,

The pride of Vavlu, Ufzu's treasure trove,

At once museum, chapel, shrine and school.

141

Some colons, commas, question marks and dashes

Incorporated in the text and diction

Of our capitulars, some strokes and slashes,

Might lead you to suppose our writs were fiction,

142

Unless you'd been instructed how to parse

Our phrases, sentences and periods

As meant. You elsewise might see them as farce,

Supposing flaws to number myriads.

143

Rijarli, poring o'er our books, was struck

By statements that impressed her as fallacious,

But rather than consult, 'twas our bad luck,

She chose to found a sect, and waxed tenacious

144

In independence, brazen, bold as brass,

Called Carvanilli an autonomy.

She hypnotized our sisterhood en masse,

Establishing her own economy.

145

Queen Shandra couldn't sway her. She was proud.

Defiance in her bosom rankled too.

She did revile the monarchess aloud,

And said she'd do as she saw fit to do.

146

I was apprised of all that was transpiring

In distant Carvanilli. I knew all.

I wondered what Rijarli was aspiring

To bring to pass. Sought she Defdefa's fall?

147

Deciding it were best to fly back soon

And monitor minutely mutiny

Unfolding in the forest on the moon,

I went to witness with due scrutiny,

148

Incognito, this situation dire,

Ere I took measures to disperse the smoke,

Extinguishing the fury and the fire

Upon the coals Rijarli thus did stoke.

149

I called myself Onárd and changed my guise.

Upon my head I wore a white cornette.

I claimed as nuncia I'd flown the skies,

Dispatched by Olezconia to get

150

The tidings and the tally of the times.

'Twas but routine and regularity

According to our regimen and rhymes.

This surely was no singularity

151

I would maintain by way of explanation

As to Rijarli I myself addressed,

Supposing for decorum's preservation

She'd welcome me and clasp me to her breast,

152

Her insubordination she'd conceal,

At least till she'd waxed indisputably

My equal in authority and weal

And could confront me irrefutably.

153

Anticipating I'd with flesh of kine

And cates be hosted histrionically,

With sanctimony me she'd wine and dine,

I was caught unawares, ironically,

154

When that the dénouement was quite reverse.

Rijarli made no secret of her guile,

Wore her apostasy, abject, perverse,

Exhibiting her wilfulness and wile.

155

'Twas not with hearty hospitality

I was received at Carvanilli's gate.

A different eventuality

Should I've foreseen, a fearsome, frightful fate.

156

Rijarli took me prisoner that hour,

And, clapping me in irons, locked me tight

Within a cell, within her stony tower,

With little food and water, little light.

157

'Twas problematic that nobody knew

That I'd incognito come to the moon.

E'en did they miss me, certain to be true,

They'd never have supposed she would maroon

158

My withered form behind blocks of basalt,

As if assailing me she had the right,

To pour upon my wounds a pound of salt,

Depriving me of sustenance and sight.

159

So how could I hope rescue would avail,

That Carvanilli, ransacked, would release

My remnant, that I would anon prevail

And from my sufferings secure surcease?

160

No one in Ung my whereabouts surmised,

Nor did Rijarli recognize my feature.

She wist not Olezconia, disguised,

Now languished in her dungeon, hapless creature.

161

It always had been said that I was flush

And wore a red carnation on my cheek,

As if an everlasting bashful blush

Bloomed roses, and camellias caused to peek.

162

They'd said I seemed a girl, rouged and pink.

My lips with lipstick nature did adorn.

In fact, I'd been embarrassed for to think

So destitute of grit I had been born.

163

But in my cell, these petals drooped and paled.

A grizzly gray befell me. I grew ashen.

Floridity forsook me. Freshness staled.

Now gloom and pallor dimmed my merry passion.

164

O'er my vivacity they pulled a pall.

My countenance got skinny, and raw bone

Poked from my shawl as I leant on a wall

To raise on high my solitary groan.

165

I counted days. Then days to weeks did turn,

And weeks to months, but I remained imprisoned.

Rijarli often came to look and learn,

In white batiste and jet-black cashmere dizened.

166

She deemed it needful that she thus inspect

To ascertain I hadn't passed away.

In nunnish finery and flounces decked,

Rijarli visited almost each day.

167

'Twas doubtless she scarce realized her garb

So luscious and luxurious and lavish

Would strike me, how her wimple and her barbe

Would catch my breath, my eyes how they would ravish.

168

For mine were threadbare and my mantle worn,

My icons and medallions green with tarnish.

My stockings and my petticoats were torn.

My beads and rosaries were bare of varnish.

169

I was a scarecrow, harpy, horrid hag.

My eyes did burn to see Rijarli dressed

So elegantly while I whiled in rag,

Her heresy so heinously expressed.

170

This was the lady I myself had named

To be the governess of our new presence,

In Amga, Vavlu's suburb, justly famed,

In forests full of francolins and pheasants.

171

Who'd have divined Rijarli would revolt,

And start a new religion, sealing me

In dreary dungeon, shut with iron bolt,

Intending nevermore to set me free?

172

My views were secular, I do acknowledge.

Though abbess, I had pondered only briefly

Eternal verities. In holy college,

I'd studied scientific subjects chiefly.

173

Immured in darkness, though, I sought relief

By praying fervently, in desperation,

Beseeching rescue from this wimpled thief,

Imploring Heaven's angels for salvation.

174

I had an iron relic in my pocket,

Composed of little bars like a mosaic.

I drew one narrow bar from out its socket,

A measure I admit was wholly laic.

175

Upon my bed of stone I honed the bar

Till that I held a dagger in my hand.

Whenas Rijarli I saw from afar,

In shadows lurking, quietly I'd stand,

176

So that if haply she the door did ope,

To look inside, inspecting all about,

I'd feel my skirt, its drapery I'd grope,

And pull the sharpened makeshift dagger out.

177

I'd grab her 'round the neck and hold her tight,

Her habit slashing slightly, so to warn

That, if she contemplated for to fight,

I would transfix her where her garb I'd shorn.

178

Of course, I meant to scare her, not to slay.

I'd force her to conduct me to the gate.

Escaping thus I'd go without delay

To Candle Tower, where Shandra reigned in state.

179

Denouncing then this treachery, I'd sue

That royalty arrest the ruthless nun

And deal with her as it were due to do,

Now that her usurpation were undone.

180

Each day Rijarli came but I'd no chance

To seize her with my dagger in my hand.

She merely took a step or cast a glance.

I needed that she stay and still she stand,

181

So that I could withdraw the iron blade

As she peered in the opposite direction

Nor could perceive what happened in the shade.

I'd in this wise proceed without detection.

182

At last I had the opportunity,

Emboldened for that she did enter quite.

I'd time to rush her with impunity.

My dagger I would brandish in her sight

183

So that she'd understand that I was armed.

She'd then obey the orders that I'd give.

Not otherwise would she remain unharmed,

Her decades thus continuing to live.

184

At any rate, this was the way I dreamt

The duel would develop when I sprang

From darkness out, ferociously unkempt,

Like to a lion, baring fatal fang.

185

Quite diff'rently in actuality

The confrontation 'twixt us did take place.

Rijarli chortled, in reality,

Contemptuously laughing in my face.

186

She grabbed me by my wrist. The dagger fell.

My arm she twisted sore behind my back,

Till I was shrieking. Then she rang a bell,

So guards, like executioners in black,

187

Came running to assist the wicked sister.

Next I was tautly tied both hand and foot.

The hempen ropes would chafe me, they would blister,

And I'd be left in darkness, dankness, soot.

188

Not kenning me as abbess in disguise,

Rijarli said she'd author a report.

The abbess she would angrily apprise

To vicious villainy I did resort,

189

Aspiring to affront her in a fury.

She'd fax the abbess the report she wrote,

And have her hale my hulk before a jury.

Undoubtedly to hang me they would vote.

190

Much later I was told that on the day

The díspatch from Rijarli flittered forth

From out the printer, sliding on its tray,

Inside Defdefa Nunnery, just north

191

Of city Fwascren, in the west of Ung,

The nuns were puzzled. They were quite perplexed.

They read the bulletin and they were stung.

They scarcely could believe the tainted text.

192

They'd heard of no legation to the moon,

No nuncia who'd gone to Ufzu newly.

They would report this to the abbess soon

That she take necessary action duly,

193

But none could find the nun superior.

They searched the abbey's every cell and choir,

Exploring every room's interior.

They telephoned Mecnita to inquire

194

If peradventure she could there be found.

They checked with every chapel of the order.

There were a dozen scattered all around

The vasty tracts emcompassed by our border,

195

But nothing by their search did they reveal.

None knew the abbess' whereabouts at all.

How was it thus she did herself conceal?

The sisters were bemused. Yet one did call

196

The aerospace facility to see

If there was any record of a flight

Made by a nun, and whe'r she did return.

Had they their boarding lists in black and white?

197

The nuns felt it imprudent to await

Instructions Olezconia would give.

This was emergency. A sister's fate,

The question whether she would die or live,

198

Hung in the balance. They must act posthaste.

Time of the essence was. They must be quick.

There wasn't e'en a second they could waste.

The hourglass trickled and the clock did tick.

199

The aerospace directress said by phone

That but a single nun was on their list.

The abbess Olezconia had flown

To Ufzu, but had not returned, they wist.

200

Their archives absolutely were correct.

A hundred times the names they verified.

There were no errors. Searches would detect.

The abbess was on Mli, 'twas true and tried.

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Silver and Roses, Henna and Myrrh

Sun and Moon, Heaven and Earth