Korshed's Tale

This poem was written as a ballad sung by a troubadour in my story "The Book of Vashti" (a work in progress) which is based on the Biblical "Book of Esther" and set in ancient Persia.


Korshed's Tale

My love is like a pomegranate
High upon a tree
By day she is a luscious fruit
Protected by her scarlet coat
She ripens just for me.

By night she is a princess, tan
Dressed in a ruby gown
But one night came a demon man
Who grasped her in his fiendish hand
And plucked my Gulnar* down.

He carried her into his lair
And laid his head upon her lap
While he slept she stroked his hair
She sang to him in sweet despair
Her tears caressed him as he napped.

At morn I saw my darling lost.
"Where is my Gulnar," I cried out 
My heart beat fiercely in my breast.
'Til she is saved I will not rest
Until I kill that evil lout".

Up rocky mount, o'er arid dell
I trudged through near and foreign parts
At last I found the fetid well
where Gulnar's wicked demon dwelt.
I thrust my sword into his heart.

Back home, I take my Gulnar sweet
and 'neath the pomegranate tree
we hold each other in the night
and taste the fruit of love's delight
Oh jewel of all ecstasy.


*Gulnar: Persian for pomegranate flower and a woman's name