Lilja's Lament
Strolling under harbor lights, Lilja reads a line'Poor Tatiana'In another library, Rochester arrivesOh lord, he's half-blindLancelot and Guinevere came nowhere near the pierNo love this yearMarian called Robin Hood to save her from the seaBut words are cheap
Stories had been spun, a sea of metaphors were doneAnd Lilja heard but wonder's thunderAll the books she read kept her in bed and hurt her headHer tragic flaw was not a blunder
Percival got drunk and tossed his cup into the snowWhere'd the grail go?Catherine found her Heathcliff but the Brontes died aloneAir gets so coldWind revives the balladeers sentenced to their wordsFog means returnFor the bards and troubadours, sentences are worldsWe long but don't learn
Stories had been spun, a sea of metaphors were doneAnd Lilja heard but wonder's thunderAll the books she read kept her in bed and hurt her headHer tragic flaw was not a blunder
Teeter totter by the harbor, Lilja looked up saw a starfishHolding her hand was Ophelia,Smith, Elliot; Plath, Sylvia
Stories had been spun, a sea of metaphors were doneBut Lilja lived her blunder thunderAll the books she read put her to rest on a seabedHer tragic flaw still makes me wonder