Princess And The Commoner

A Knight was in love with a Princess; she walked with a dignified grace, she was arrayed like a perfumed flower threaded in gossamer lace. He sent to her rare blossoms that bloomed in the light of the moon and stood in the shade of a bower reciting at the height of the noon. He penned for her a love song with the passion and flavor of youth and he brought with him a minstrel then he sang to the tune of the flute. The Princess was cold that evening moved not by the flute or his song, she retired to her father's chamber reflecting at the foot of his throne. The Knight was commissioned by merchants to slay a magnificent beast, craftsmen fashioned a necklace made of priceless talisman teeth. The Princess would not clasp it so it hung on her vanities door at night they would constantly chatter and speak of love and of loss and of war. The Knight rode off to battle fighting in foreign campaigns and returned with a Persian stallion and offered the Princess his reins. The Princess would not accept them so the Knight set the stallion free and said; 'I release and return you to the earth and the wind and the sea.' In an act of desperation he laid down his armor and shield he bent his sword to a plowshare and gave his strength to the field. One night on a moon trimmed evening the Knight saw a commoner girl she was watching him in the distance dressed in rags and blistered by toil. The Knight moved quickly upon her caressing her scars and her hurt enfolding her in his strong arms lifting her up from the dirt. She motioned to a lowly thatch dwelling that was hidden by thorny brush trees breaking with joy through the clearing he stroked the earth and the wind and the sea. Her hut was twined with dried flowers that shone with the light of the moon and her bed adorned like the bowers from which he sang when the sun peaked at noon. Dressing her neck the teeth chattered and they spoke of commoner blood with the love and the pain and the passion unsung in the snow and the mud.