Swan Song

Based on a newspaper article in China.

Her hair was as black as a starling's tail,

Her cheeks as pale as a swan,

Her eyes, like two slim moonstones, glowed

And her mouth was the Holy Grail.

She'd played in the dirt of the village street

So long ago, so long...

She'd swum in the pools of the mountain stream,

But now, that girl had gone.

 

While I still rise with the early bird

To tend to my father's fields,

As the only son of an only son

I watched the woman leave.

She cried sweet tears as she said farewell

And vowed to come back, and soon,

But the village streets of a western town

Hold nothing for Ling Xiaodan.

 

The weeks went by, then the months and years

And I heard of her, near and far,

She was dressed in expensive clothes, I heard,

She was driving a shiny car;

She was seen at the Beijing Opera

By a man who worked at the door,

'She glided by like a Queen,' he said,

'As her dress trailed long on the floor.'

 

And her wai po, down in the village square

Would brag of her daughter's girl,

'She will snare some man with a million yuan,'

She said, 'not a farmer's son.

Go home to your fields and forget her now,

She's not for an also-ran!'

And laughed, as the tears sprang into my eyes

For the love of Ling Xiaodan.

 

She came back once to the village street

To her home, as ever we must,

But carefully held her dress up high

To avoid the rubbish and dust,

I stood at the side and she looked at me,

Then turned, looked quickly away,

For Ling Xiaodan and a farmer's son

Had nothing at all to say.

 

But I saw her once before she left,

Alone by the mountain stream,

Her eyes were sorrowful, in remorse,

Remembering how we'd been.

'I loved you once, as a child,' she said

'But the world is harsh, and grey...

We do what our fathers want us to,

And my father sent me away.'

 

I sat by her then, and held her hand,

Stroking her neck, and hair,

And kissed the cheek, so pale and wan,

And I cried in a deep despair..

'You must get on with your life,' she said,

'Get a wife and a baby son;

I leave tomorrow to see the man

That my father has met in town.'

 

I heard that she'd wed a businessman,

And cried in the quiet gloom,

My dream had died by the mountain stream,

On that day, in the afternoon.

She worked in a shop her husband owned,

So they said, but I never heard

'Til the body was brought back home again,

That the love of my life was dead.

 

It seemed that she'd sold her favours there

In the rear of a grimy store,

To any man with the change to spare

While her husband played Mah Jongg.

He'd gambled his fortune, and lost it all

While his wife kept the fool from jail

With what she earned with her hands and hair,

And a mouth like the Holy Grail.

 

But then, a man who was ill or mad

Put his grimy hands at her throat,

And squeezed the life from the darling neck

That I'd once both loved, and stroked.

They buried her up on the mountainside

By the stream, in sight of her home,

And from where I stand in the paddy fields

I can see her pale white stone.

 

She'd played in the dirt of the village street

So long ago, so long...

She'd swum in the pools of the mountain stream,

But now, that girl had gone.

I married a woman I barely knew

And she bore me a black-haired girl,

With eyes like two slim moonstones, and...

A mouth like the Holy Grail.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Bubo]

A beautiful tale/story (is it true).......of a once innocent child sold almost by her father.........her beauty
bringing money and leaving behind a love that was true, what a life .......to have to live with the
every day pain.......your descriptions as always haunting,

While his wife kept the fool from jail
With what she earned with her hands and hair,
And a mouth like the Holy Grail.


I am always sucked in to your words and captivated until the last line and i might be sounding
repetitive. but your words just flow so well..............are you published?

[~crazy Beautiful~]

You have such a way of writing detailed visuals.
I enjoy your style very much
A beautiful piece
My favorite lines
" Her hair was as black as a starling's tail,
Her cheeks as pale as a swan,Her eyes,
like two slim moonstones,
glowedAnd her mouth was the Holy Grail.
She'd played in the dirt of the village street
So long ago, so long..
.She'd swum in the pools of the mountain stream,
But now,
that girl had gone."
This grabbed my attention immedately
Nice work
Thank you for entering my contest

[Kara Emily Krantz]

this is FANTASTIC. i've read about forty pieces this morning, and this one is the best of that bunch, so that's gotta mean something! lol

really impressed with this. the rhyme scheme was just... perfect, really. it added to rather than detracted from teh poem, which seems to be harder and harder to find with rhyming poems. the story is fantastic and devastating, and you present it beautifullly.

really impressed :)

hugs

[Fantasyfairy]

This bought tears to my eyes, and pulled on my heart strings, not something that is easily done. This is a sad and beautiful tale of lost love and life's sad endings. Beautifully written. XX

[Vivica Heart]

Amazing.
Wonderful.
I can't really think of a word to describe, it's that good.
This one brought tears to my eye as well.
Another four thumbs up.