In olden times there lived a pair
Of lovers in the city Fair
Who each night stole from houses' keep
And broke their promises of sleep
To 'neath the other's window pane
Stand and call out to see again
The object of affection's sight
That they wished so to see that night.

Mathias was a lawyer's son,
Brought up to be like father one
And taught the ways of civil life,
Expected to secure a wife
Of stature great within Fair's walls,
Expected too to grace the halls
Of lovely Fair's governing house
As had his father and his spouse.
And he learned much of men of fame
That hist'ry deemed to grant one name,
Like Jefferson and Bonaparte,
Plato and Kant, Nietzsche, Descartes,
Dante, Homer, Milton, Shakespeare,
Einstein, Nobel, Newton, Daguerre.
And he could spin you endless tales
Of valiant knights and maidens' veils;
He could without a doubt recite
Each long thousand Arabian night,
Or looking at a map could tell
In which city a man did dwell.
He knew each war, he knew each king,
Even what Drake with him would bring
When setting sail on Golden Hind,
Or returning after a find.
And he knew every myth of Greece,
From Zeus to Jason's golden fleece;
He knew of Thor and Odin's life,
Bathsheba and Osiris' wife,
He knew well too Siddartha's view,
And what would Montezuma do.
But life he had not spent in books,
And Fate had blessed him with good looks,
With sandy hair and azure eyes
Whose blueness rivaled that of skies;
A chiseled chin, infectious smiles,
A silken voice heard 'cross the miles,
A magnetism not lost on
The girls on whom his light would dawn-
Their giggles followed every pace
He made, their eyes locked on his face,
And by them all he was adored,
Although their voices he ignored
For all these girls he could not see
Nor hear, for all there was for he
Was only Desdemona fair,
The lovely lass that he held dear.

Dear Desdemona was of kin
That others felt lived deep in sin-
A father caught within the hold
Of alcohol, a mother cold
And distant from her daughters' life,
A couple poor as groom and wife;
A brother caught within the deep
Recesses of a prison's keep;
Sister, pariah of the clan,
Who failed to hold on to a man
Despite the birth of bastard son,
Not merely once but two plus one;
And each of her nephews in kind
Were children who were slow in mind
And weak in physical stature-
Their health no doctor could assure.
But Desdemona, born of Fair,
Somehow escaped that life of fear
And rose above her kindred's fate
To lead a life like head of state,
For though in poverty she lived,
The Fates still saw her fit to give
A beauty iridescent still
To match her dear ferocious will.
And though she never had the chance
To study much of circumstance,
Her wit was sharp as anyone;
Her green eyes shone like verdant sun,
Her flaxen hair waved in the breeze
Life leaflets of the sturdy trees,
Her buxom breasts heaved in a way
Befitting of a life lived gay
In constant bliss, incessant mirth
From the very moment of birth.
Charisma beamed from her like light
Alone within the blackest night,
And smiles always adorned her lips
Coming in gulps rather than sips.
The animals all knew her well
For they too were under her spell,
And each squirrel and mouse and deer,
Even the snake and maulsome bear
For her became a playful guest,
Each fly a friend and not a pest.
And Desdemona, sacred soul,
Walked never in a shadow's hole,
For sunlight always lit the ground
Whenever she was still around.

And yet, though she was all of this,
She lived without the touch of bliss,
Instead in sheer depression's clutch
Dwelt there our lovely maiden, much
To dismay of her pretty head
And wondrous heart that cold and dead
Was moving ever closer to
Because of things she could not do,
Such as escape downtrodden life
And live apart from fam'ly strife.
She was fairest of all to know;
As for finding gentleman, though,
She seemed most doomed to failure's lair
Within the sturdy walls of Fair,
For none could see just alone she
Without the taint of fam'ly tree,
And though her beauty shone like stars
Through blackest space, she yet wore scars
Not on her luscious nubile skin,
But rather on the parts within-
Her gentle heart and fragile mind
That seemed always still stuck behind
The notion she was not worthy
Of that life she most wished to see-
And thus no man she met in life
Thought of her as a future wife,
At least not any of the best
That Fair offered, more so the rest,
Who truth be told could lay no claim
To worthiness, for much the same
They were, a clan of monstrous men
Whose maturation stopped at ten,
Who'd rather see sculpture defiled,
Who'd rather beat a wife and child,
Who'd rather turn to drugs than try
An honest life, a nat'ral high,
For whom respect was just a word
With meaning that they've never heard.
And Desdemona could not find
Amongst these one to match her mind
Nor satisfy her wishing heart
That lived in worlds of lofty art.
Her past read like a tragedy
Liked only by insanity.
There were boyfriends and lovers, true,
But they were far between and few
Who lasted more than span of days
Before going about their ways,
And even those who stayed around
Could not stay solid on the ground,
And soon would reach disfavor in
The heart of our poor heroine.
And so she wept much and despaired
With feelings that nobody cared
Nor would she ever find that one
To shine on her like healing sun,
The light she so desired to see
To guide her where she wished to be.

And poor Mathias, what a shame,
His story read so much the same.
He questioned value of his life
For all he knew was trophy wife
Still to become, a waste of space,
A race of just a pretty face
On bodies that were all alike
As too their minds, though one must strike
Ideas that they had any there,
For heads they had were filled with air.
And their thoughts of a future cast
In perfection built on the past
Leaned heavily on money's deep
To in their comfort's level keep,
A husband who would slave away
At a high paying job each day
So she could remain yet at home,
Or with her vapid sisters roam
The endless avenues of stores
All day as though they were her chores.
So shallow were these creatures they
Had nothing of import to say,
And so Mathias found them dull,
As valuable as leaky hull,
And though he bent to pressure's will
To see these things that made him ill,
He always sought to find still yet
A woman rather than a pet,
One who could stimulate his mind,
Make his heart race and for her pine,
One who perhaps felt beauty's touch
As well, but he never found such
In circles that his life would run,
And so in absence of the sun
His soul began to wilt and die
And his became a lonely eye
And lonely heart that could not find
A mate to please his soul and mind.
And so like Desdemona, he
Despaired as well to find his she.

But Fate had other plans in store
For our young couple to adore,
For as one bright and sunny day
During the rite of spring in May
As Mathias walked down Main Street,
Who should our desperate soul meet
But Desdemona, deeply lost
Amid her sea of endless cost,
And neither paying any mind,
Collision left them in a bind.
And Desdemona dropped her purse,
While Mathias felt need to curse
But quit the urge upon the sight
Of eyes his met that shone like light,
For as he stood with purse in hand,
Instantly he did understand
That in this woman present there
Was the best that could offer Fair,
And so too she could see in him
The one to please her every whim,
The man whom she had so long sought,
And here at last Fate to her brought
The gentleman to make her life
Happy, as husband to her wife,
And yet though locked in sultry gaze
With two heads spinning in a daze,
No words passed 'tween our forlorn pair,
No thoughts escaped into the air,
No hi, hello, no how are you,
Just courtesies said by the two
Who soon were on their ways again
Apart, though thoughts were all of when
In that moment they'd known at last
That all the troubles of the past
Were gone for future had begun
With meeting of the other one.
And so too hearts began to beat
With vigor they could not entreat
At any time before that day,
When lives were changed to bright from gray.
And as days passed, each thought they had
Was of how mis'rable and sad
Their life would be without the chance
To embrace in immortal dance,
And so before a week went by,
The two apart no reason why
They saw they should remain as so,
And each vowed to the other go.

It was the first of June the day
Each felt beyond a doubt that they
Must arrive at the other's lair
And at their window to declare
Their growing love and all its reach,
And hopefully to them beseech
That though they were of diff'rent stock,
The pairing still would be a lock,
That life together would be rich
And satisfying; reasons which
They hoped enough so to convince
His princess, and to her, her prince,
Not knowing though that each one felt
Already that their heart would melt
In instant for their fair love's touch
That they yearned for so very much.
And so when came the first of June
And night fell and arose the moon,
Our hero Mathias snuck out
Of home so he could cast about
Where he knew of his love to dwell
And there find her so he could tell
To her the romance in his head
He saw for them in vivid red,
And dazzling whites and majesties
Of sunsets over placid seas,
The picnics spent lazed in the park,
The quiet moments in the dark,
The gentle words and comfort's miles,
Gay laughter at eclectic smiles,
And all the dreams he'd always hoped
To one day share with his eloped.
And dressed in black he stole down Third,
Silent, so as not to be heard,
Traversing street and alleyway
To where he knew his love to stay.
And Desdemona, not to be
Ignored had decided that she
Would also go to tell her love
Of all that which she had dreamed of,
The country drives to hidden dales,
Their telling children fairy tales,
Listening to the cheerful song
Of forests all of the day long,
The starry nights upon the beach
Alone, in only ocean's reach,
The winter's light of fireplace
Dancing upon their warm embrace.
And so she too in black took First
To say the lines she had rehearsed.
And as the moon reached over head,
Each arrived at the other's bed
Only to find much to dismay
That their true love was out away.
Each stood beneath a window black
Of rooms that occupants did lack,
And long they hoped for swift regress
Of they who they hoped to impress.
But as the sun began its creep
To over the horizon peep,
No signs they saw, on came despair
That their love truly was not there.

And so with sunken hearts, the two
Returned from whence they came to do
The routines of their daily life,
Though stinging still from past night's knife.
And all the day after they saw
What they perceived to be the flaw
They had not reckoned on before
But that perhaps Fate had in store.
For though each felt for them such love,
Perhaps some else did they think of,
Perhaps too late they did arrive
To unreceptive heart revive,
Perhaps they were not meant to see-
But no, they felt that could not be,
And vehemently they denied
That they'd forever be outside
And only wishing to be in;
They knew in hearts kept deep within
That as a pair and not apart
Were they to stay once they could start.
And so with ample resolve to
Unite despite the setback's hue,
They each night stole from houses' keep,
They broke their promises of sleep
To 'neath the other's window pane
Stand and call out to see again
Their object of affection's sight
That they so yearned to see that night-
Yet somehow in their nightly quest
Fate never heard of their behest,
And meeting that was to take place
Slipped slowly from each forlorn face.
And through the weeks and months and years,
Through all the shedding of their tears,
They daily hoped each night would be
The night to start eternity.
But never did that night's deep rise,
And despair crept back to the eyes
And depression back to the heart
Of lovers kept so far apart.

And before long it came to be
The time that passed had been years three,
And still no light from windows came,
And still each unkind night, the same.
And Mathias, his father's son,
To betray father was not one,
He could not simply turn aside
The feelings which he felt inside,
But nor could he ignore the man
Whose seed had his own life began,
And wishes that said man had for
His son involved a marriage more
For sake of image than for love,
For sake of seeming high above
His peers on social ladder's steps,
For that's what his circle accepts
And expects from such golden child;
To be ferocious and yet mild
When it came to the social game,
If only to uphold his name.
And so his father found for him
A woman to not please his whim,
Poor Esmeralda, sorry soul,
Who emerged from the womb unwhole,
Who while pretty was mindless yet
And was of ilk hoped not to get
By Mathias, but without choice
To go against his father's voice,
He acceded to evil plan
Devised by good-willed evil man.
The wedding was the fifth of May
Four years removed from that June day,
And in the joyous pictures there,
A smile Mathias would not wear
For all his thoughts were far away,
Remembrance of that ancient day.
And how he wished once more to see
His Desdemona's subtlety,
And how he yearned for that one bliss
Of wrapping her within his kiss,
Within his comforting embrace;
But now here he was in disgrace,
With wife and children on the way
From game he most wished not to play.
And Desdemona, that poor lass,
Heartbroken she had come to pass
Beyond the line she had not crossed
Before her one true love she lost.
Like body without spirit's guide
She could not by her laws abide,
And friends and family the same
Engulfed her in their wicked game,
And soon enough she had become
Of her life's desperation, sum,
And drugs began to trickle in
From all of her surrounding din.
And soon she was too weak to stand
Alone without presence of man,
And so once more the cycle went
Of seeing vicious men all bent
On making her their loyal slave,
And to these men her soul she gave,
For she no longer had a heart
To any more be torn apart.
And before long, as sister had,
She bore a child without a dad,
A darling son came from her womb
That all too soon lay in his tomb,
For as the drugs ran through her veins,
So too her child's and caused him pains
The likes of which no child should bear,
And so with each eye filled with tear,
The child, Mathias was his name
In turn after her source of shame,
Was laid to rest within the earth
But merely weeks after his birth.

And with the death of angel's child,
Our Desdemona saw how wild
A woman she had turned into,
Saw all the things she should not do
But could no longer halt through will,
For that in her the years did kill.
And without hope, beyond forlorn,
Beyond lament and beyond mourn,
She could settle on nothing less
Than to escape her present mess
The only way left she could see,
So with sad face she secretly
Stole out again one starless night
And stopped once more to see the light
That years ago she yearned to see
With shadows there of her dear he.
And as she saw the window pane,
The darkness which had been her bane
Was now removed, replaced by sight
Of ceremony in full light.
She'd hoped once more to join his life
But saw instead his wedded wife
In gown that had been meant for her,
Or so she wished and had been sure.
And there upon the wedding's eve
Sad Desdemona took her leave,
She ran out to a seaside bluff
And proclaimed she had had enough,
And so she leapt into the sea
Below where death waited for she;
And it had passed many a day
Before found floating in the bay
Was she who only short before
Had been a woman to adore;
But now deceased, forever gone
Was the dear child of golden Dawn.
There was funeral all the same
For her, though none but sister came,
And in the earth she was interred
Next to the son she had procured.
And years flew by the town of Fair
Without the passing of a care
For the untimely maiden's death,
It was not on the minds nor breath
Of any who had even known
Her, though to all her beauty'd shone.

And what though of Mathias' life?
What passed for him and his new wife
But what had all been laid out years
'Fore Desdemona shed her tears.
And Mathias never did find
Again that one to please his mind,
And never was he satisfied
That his one love had been denied,
And though he lived his life the way
Decreed by what father did say,
It was for him but empty shell,
An earthly version of his hell.
As years flew by he was adorned
With honors; all the while he mourned,
Lamenting that never again
His Desdemona he saw then.
And so half century gone by
Saw Mathias still each night cry.
And passing time but made it worse,
As though he bore the ill of curse,
And so one desperate night he went
Out to escape more being pent,
And as he strolled past graveyard's walls,
A sight struck hard on his eye balls-
He saw two tombs within the light
Of full moon on that starless night,
One bore in small inscription name
That read to him to be his same,
And one beside bore the name of
His Desdemona, long lost love,
Who died upon his wedding day
As per what her headstone would say,
And died because of malady
That suddenly made sense to he-
Her cause of death was broken heart
Caused by her being so apart,
It said, from her but one true love
That e'en in death she still dreamed of:
Mathias, said the stony tomb,
That she so missed and that of whom
She could not bear to be without.
And though two such, he had no doubt
That he of which the drear stone told
Stood living yet within the hold
Of artifice and fractured life,
Loveless marriage, a trophy wife.
And Mathias dropped to his knees
Suddenly there between the trees,
And now did he most realize
That happy life lay 'fore his eyes
In Desdemona while of life,
And not in arms of loveless wife,
And so long gone unsatisfied,
Mathias there broke down and cried.