rage and recovery

lancelot will reign in this kingdom

they sang praises to the strong and powerful king arthur

with his sharp wit and his glittering jewels

and guinevere revelled in the brilliant light of his praises

and the sharpness of his biting remarks.

kings are made for ruthlessness and rage

and it is a gift to be subject to his graces

no matter how many times he uses you up

and throws you on the floor in the midnight light.

its not until guinevere finally tired of arthurs abuses

and removed the woolen restraints from her eyes

that she realized arthur was no more than 

a wounded man clinging to the last shreds of

his all-consuming need for eternal worship.

and that was the moment she realized

it was not arthur at all who lit a fire in her heart

and made her head spin on its axis

while also providing the safest refuge in his arms.

it was lancelot, with his shuttered smile and 

his delicate words and his strong, sure gaze,

that captured guineveres aching heart

and cradled it safely in his palms.

and when lancelot breathed his 

honey-soaked words against her lips

and his fingertips grazed her ribs

like the softest of butterfly kisses,

guinevere realized that it is not always

the men with the loudest laugh or 

the jewels that glitter the brightest

that deserve the keys to your safeguarded heart.

more often, it is the men that knock at the door

of the mountainous walls you built around yourself

and gently offer their palms up to you

and read from the sacred texts of their hearts

open, honest, trustworthy,

that deserve the love you've so desperately clung to

and hid behind your back with crossed fingers.

king arthur may carry the might of the

kingdoms troops in his pocket

but lancelot carries the respect of the men

who know that arthurs legacy will soon end

and the only thing that will remain is hardness

and strife and tyranny and heartache,

and it is lancelot who will end up victorious

because, while it may take guinevere time

to unshutter her heart and regain her sight,

she will soon realize that the soft sureness 

of lancelots thumb against her knuckles

is worth more than all of arthurs empty promises

and overflowing vaults of gold-encrusted betrayal combined.