For Queen & Country3 - The Chessboard Series: 0-0-0

The Pledge of the King
 
They say that I and the land are one
And that matters of state
Must come before matters in house
But without you
This land is struck by earthquake
And princedoms lay on the edge of cliffs
The fiefdom becomes an abandoned child
And the affairs of husbandry are no more
 
And without you
This land has no sky to look up to
There is no rain to make it mortal again
Nor sunshine to medicine this tortured earth
When the princess of my youth is gone
Flocks of geese fly
Into unsailable headwinds
Nightingales have no branches
To rest or lay
The only song heard
Is the whistling of the cyclone
That rips up villages and litters them
About the unroyal green carpet of countryside
 
Nothing but primitive matchsticks
Of smouldering ruins
Whose smoke speaks forth your name
Speaking forth of hope
Sailing forth of restoration
Showing forth of what will be again
 
Princess of my younger days
I am nothing without you
I am but the drizzle
On the very tip of winters’ whim
Drifting aimlessly
By the strokes of maddening wind
 
But you are the tunnel of sunlight
That directs the water
Of my directionless ways……