A Poem

I wrote this poem a few years ago and recently found it again. I thought it might fit here because its about the ambiguous way many men in our society feel about powerful spirited women. Often they find them attractive when they first meet and the very fact that they are strong and independent is what makes them so attractive. But, once a steady relationship has been established, the man finds these qualities irritating and they may even make him feel rather emasculated, so he stops being attracted to her. The poem is a tribute to the woman who is a classic example of this (at least to a historian like me)

Anne Bolyne

I am a woman of fire
Of earthquake and of stone
You will forsake all others
And worship me alone

The passion that will scorch your sheets
Will immolate my foes
My gale force does not pick and choose
But feasts where e're it blows

Do you want me at your side?
Than I shall be your wife
You will feel me in your soul
For all your breathing life

Now that our vows are spoken
Can it be your heart runs dry?
The devotion that you promised me
I'll have it or know why

I should be patient, meek, and silent?
But that's not who I am
You knew me when you married me
An eagle not a lamb

I will bow down to no one
I stand up and defy
My spirit is what you lusted for
Though this you now deny

And so these attributes of mine
That in a lover you would desire
In a wife are but a burden
That makes your love expire

If I am to be like Anne
And unjustly lose my head
At least, I beg you, save my honor
And weep not when I'm dead

Henry Rex danced in yellow
On the day his wife was slain
I would have you do the like
And let no ghost remain

Of the love that was between us
Of the fire you now flee
If my heart must be in ashes
Let your pity not torment me