Tonight's Poet Corner: A Secret Guest

A Secret Guest
by Belinda Roddie

Come see me once the men
in black armor have left for the night
in their barbed wire carriages, forming
stitches and breaking jaws on the previously
pristine cobblestone. I will be in my room

at nine o'clock, and I will be
cutting my hair link by golden link, like
brass and bronzed chains that I've been keen
on snapping with a blade. Come kiss me after
my father's guards have drunk too much

of his homemade mead,
and therefore, their eyes are too glazed over
to tell the difference between lips
and bricks. I want to hear your stories
one more time, read off papyrus and summer

reeds, sung by swans and spun
into tiny beads. I collect each word
and save them in a broken music box.
That way, the song is silent, but your lyrics
remind me of the draconian word: Freedom.