Sipping the Tea

Alright, so, I'm going to continue to post my marine poems on and off, but I'm going to see what can I dig up from a new category with some older stuff:

Knights.

I love them. I love knights. I know they weren't the most noble of men, historically (see: Crusades), but in the fictional sense...

I love knights.

Ever since I was in elementary school and slipped away to the library, hiding between the rows of shelves, burying myself in the scent of old books- the kind that creak when you crack them open, the yellow pages rough beneath your fingertips, easy to turn -

I loved King Arthur (See my poem: I am a Myth - 'twas inspired by him). It started with The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. All of my friends had dreams of visiting tropical islands for vacation -

I wanted to visit the gray and green Wales, to get lost in its mists, in its rain, in its snow. I wanted to walk the same paths my favorite characters did, my lips chapped, my joints tight from the cold, my mind awake, attuned to the mystery around me.

Which is why when today, when we were finishing Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (Mort Darthur if you want to get technical), my teacher was reading the engraving on his tomb:

"HIC IACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS"

--

"Here lies Arthur, the Once and Future King"

(once and former king, whatever)

... and I was sniffling a bit, trying to be subtle and yet not snot all over my desk, and trying not shed tears because then my mascara would smear and I had to work directly after class (j/k, I just attracted way too much attention when I cried during Gandalf's death in my LOTR class and didn't want to go through it again).

Then Doc Jo said, suddenly, in the same tone,

"And Haleigh is in tears."

I started in surprise, of course, but said simply,
"I was emotionally touched."

She replied, in the most understanding of voices: "I know, I understand."

And we all had a moment of silence for Arthur.

So then, after I came home from work, strangely enough, my roommate shouted from her room. "Hey, King Arthur's coming on. I haven't seen it."

Not exactly Le Morte D'Arthur, but I was still a bit shocked that it was even ON after my King Arthur day. So we watched it together, and I cried again, and went through my old poetry on knights.

I wish they were real. I swear - and I'm very sorry to say this, boys, if any of you read this - I have yet to meet a knight. I don't want to be a damsel in distress, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind being swept off my feet. At least ONCE.

Anyway, so I'm gonna post some Knight poems now, and then go to bed.