*verdad

by Joanna Adul and Jethro Perez

Damsel: What are you doing at this time of night?

Knight: Staring at the glaring light of my phone
As it illuminates my face and fingers…
Amidst the space of darkness that covers the night
And the melancholy that lingers…

Damsel: What is it, then…
That troubles the river of your thoughts…
That keeps you stranded…
Away from rest?

Knight: It is the doom of void and solitude
That haunts the light in my heart…
And little by little, dimmer, it becomes…
Fading into nothing but just another body part…

Damsel: Knowing there is void
Only means there is something to fill it in…
This ache of the heart, the melancholy of the night,
They won’t last long, believe me they won’t…

Knight: And with your words,
Oh damsel of the night…
The void, the solitude are rescinded with might…
And flickering once more, my heart’s light…

Damsel: To have shed some light
On your dimming road of life,
I am deeply delighted…
Young man of plights…

Knight: How momentously ironic, the twists of life…
For once in a story, ‘tis a lovely lass
Who saves the knight in his strife…
And for this I give my thanks to the damsel
Who cast out my worries and said that they wouldn’t last…

Damsel: ‘Tis an overrated tale,
The story of the mighty knight…
For the damsel is not merely an ornament
But the strength behind the light…

Knight: Always and forever, shall it be true
That the secret behind the strength
Of this knight’s shining armor…
Is the grace, the wit, the heart of the damsel in you…

Damsel: For keeping the knight’s strength is what damsels do…