Poem: The Amazon of the Lost Valley

The frenzied clash and din

Of horsemen

Sounds about my ears,

As in the harshness of the morning I see

The rocks glistening with razor-sharp dewdrops;

It was a remote valley, this valley,

Quiet and gentle yet also a fierce land

Feuding with itself

And here, it was a disgrace

To be born anything but a boy;

So, she surprised me,

For other girls , more demure,

Fought only with barbed tongues-

She, a tomboyish figure, would rather

Punch your head in,

Herding her father’s sheep with the boys of the clan;

I asked he is she was actually an Amazon, born I suppose, centuries later

Than her wont?

She said No, defiantly,

But said, when I was born,

My mother wept

Tears of shame and cried out

‘’You are cruel God,

Why send me a girl?

Take her back!

She lies heavy , like a stone upon my heart!’’

That Is the curse I was born beneath-

And therefore I labour

To wash my stain

And endeavor to be

As much man as the next ……

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From the collection The Anvil of Dreams, 1995

Omer Tarin