30 Poems in 30 Days - One: Levelling

I had an idea today about writing a poem about famous deaths, so I googled "famous deaths", and Eleanor of Aquitaine's death on April 1, 1204 at the age if 82, came up. I knew I had my subject matter, but wasn't sure how to start until I read her quote on marriage. fyi: Henry II had his wife Eleanor pretty much under house arrest when his mistress, Rosamond, died, so she couldn't have killed her. The legend that Queen Eleanor pressed a daggar to Rosamond's throat and forced her to drink poison is far too dramatic to worry about historical accuracy.

All the poems I write and post this month are rough drafts, basically thinking on paper. I'll start revising in May.

Levelling
Danna

How fortunate I was in my husbands: the monk, and the young bull in spring. Whether they would or not, they placed me on a promontory against which the tides of time have crashed and fallen back. They left me worn, these men and their tides, but they did not level me. Eleanor of Aquitaine

Let us agree
that a rumbling low murmer,
not words, only animal
sound formed at the base of the throat,
a gaze fixed on the horizon,
or a shrug of the shoulders
has been enough to fill the hollow
spaces between you and I.

Allow me to concede
how fortunate
it is that in each other
we have found the perfect rock
to batter ourselves against.

And also my gratitude
for the insistent waves
crashing against the cliffs
that shaped and formed us
into delicate grains of sand.

Here is where you turn
and prepare again for battle.

Here is where I sigh, close
the open window,
press my forehead to the cool
glass, and begin.

As long
as we're being honest,
let us admit
that a face can be a knife,
a tongueless kiss ungent
poison, sex a kind of occulation,
obscuring loneliness
behind it's large, luminous body.

Let us agree, on the last,
at the very least, this truth.

And also,
that Eleanor, of the two husbands,
and ten children,
knew the space between
meant chosing, knew
that there comes a time
to take fair Rosamond by the hair,
press a daggar to her throat,
and make her drink
a dram of poison.