Your Dewy Throne

You sit upon your dewy throne
Its beauty to conceal
From many insistent courtiers
Who before you scrape and kneel

You broach no threat nor plea
From beggar, king or fool
You strive for one thing only:
Protect your fecund jewel

In youth your verdant trophy
Was sought by many men
One once won but then betrayed
Your priceless innocence

All changed then as seasons do
From summer sun to autumn chill
Your fertile seat shrank and froze
Though your heart it did beat still

None were allowed into the place
Where you kept your unattainable prize
You fended off all who would attempt
Your unassailable walls to circumscribe

But time will come and time will go
Your monarchy to barren waste decline
Fewer there to worship now
At your altar so fresh once and fine

Your lush soil brown dry will grow
Your tenderness crisp and sear
Until you walk alone in an empty land
Love’s possibility your only fear.

J. B. Hogan has a four-story e-book, Near Love Stories, now online at Cervena Barva Press (www.cervenabarvapress.com). He also has over forty-five stories and thirty poems in such journals as: Word Catalyst, Istanbul Literary Review, Cynic Online Magazine, Admit 2 (forthcoming), Every Day Fiction, Every Day Poetry, Ranfurly Review, Dead Mule, The Scruffy Dog Review, Smokebox, Aphelion, Rumble, The Swallow’s Tail, Poesia, Bewildering Stories, Avatar Review, Copperfield Review, Ascent Aspirations, Megaera, The Pedestal Magazine, Dogwood Journal, Mastodon Dentist, Poets Against War, The Square Table, Raving Dove, Mobius, and Viet Nam Generation. He lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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