The Favor
(villanelle)
A scrap of cloth, a bit of colored string --
To beg a boon he makes to be so bold.
The path to victory's a chancy thing.
The lady, well inclined to favoring
A brazen, boastful champion unforlds
A scrap of cloth, a bit of colored string.
He mounts his steed, gay token dangling
Against his tabord for all to behold.
The path to victory's a chancy thing.
He knocks opponents flying, lance tilting
While flashing in the sunlight, bright as gold:
A scrap of cloth, a bit of colored string.
Advancing through the Lists, imagining
The kind of tales the troubadors have told,
The path of victory's a chancy thing.
But Fate will play a part for knave or king.
Beneath him in the dust as day grows cold:
A scrap of cloth, a bit of colored string.
The path to victory's a chancy thing.
-- Mistress Philippa Llewelyn Schuyler
...is a weaver of words and wadmal
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