Tonight's Poet Corner: Oh, My King!
Oh, My King! by Belinda Roddie He thrives on bone stripped of their meat. Hungry for more than stone, he is willing to draw a snake's fang from his belt and kill his brother with its venom. But he won't, for fear that his brother's wife would avenge him, and so his crown would be settled on a head of red curls as he turns to dust on a wooden stool that was once a throne. How meager is his legion of subjects! They huddle like starved insects in their hollow hives, only buzzing when he forcefully extracts praise from their petrified jaws. His daughter, fair maiden, has run away. The wind has carried her in its long, icy arms to the rival kingdom, where she has married their queen. That queen has knights built like golems, and a legendary sword to smite the damned. This emasculated monarch would do well not to upend the order between the two countries. But he craves more than stone. He feasts on gold and jewels from traitors' corpses. He dra...