Gauntlet's Shadow - with Flowergirl

With the key
to the gauntlet's shadow
of depravity
in my farewell folly
of a picayune
less a farthing
five cents to the dollar
this old poet cuss
a dubious fool
shorn of night's wool
falling to dust
beneath the gallows
under the eye of the magpie

Knights gather to see
who wins the challenge
looser hangs by the
gallows swinging noose
he prays has they battle
tonight would not be
the night his quill
will be forever silenced
poetry not yet written
thoughts kept within
love letters never revealed
to mistress’s holding all the keys