i was born to a serpent priestess and an elderly king
slipped into the waters of the cavern
under ominous prophecy
taming stallions at five
speaking like an oracle in my toddlerhood
raised a poet and a statesman
full of unusual grace
but my heart was wild and untamed
i sought the edges of the earth
a warrior explorer
the reality of me so much more enormous than the myths
bred out of thessaly
i rode out of macedonia in full regalia
the eighteen year old prince freshly crowned king
making his progressus
about to demolish the known world
and eradicate all the legends of her end beyond the maps
how little i knew then
but my friends, my scribes, my wise men, and sorcerors at my side
we would remain unrelinquishing
in my wake i left
their governments standing
i handed them viziers and a new currency
a new language to unify
blending the cultures as i vanished over the horizon
promising to return
laying out plans for the shining city
and in her heart–that city designed after man’s body–
the fountain of knowledge and a school as yet unequalled
i came to seek to learn and master
i was not so bloodthirsty as they thought
just curious
my mother called me alexios
after her familial tongue
but the world knew me by the full
as a paragon
i remember entering babylon’s watering gardens
seeing her
singing
with the exotic birds and fragrances
long i watched transfixed
love was the furthest thing from my thoughts
until my heart stopped in that moment
stopped forever
emerald eyes and palest hair
suddenly catching me
azul blue and black grecian curls
let them say i wed for political reasons
the poetry i left behind proved otherwise
all i left behind in the hands of
my persian bride
the jewel of the desert
teaching me of ahriman and ahura mazda
dancing her strange gypsy dance in emerald and amethyst
golden silks and bells
smelling of egyptian silk nights
things so beautiful i could never understand
i promised her i would return
when i swore on my life
it would be until time’s end
did i know the folly of it as i meant every word
as i gave a woman the reins of my kingdom
my burgeoning empire
and rode off into the east
and conquest
when i should have stayed
for with RoXan’s heart twined with mine
i might have tasted old age
Xerxes warned me
but i never heeded
and off the wild prince bucked into the sunrise
tens of thousands at his back
glittering under the heavy sun
we breached india
a land utterly unknown and alien
the war elephants haunt me still
their trumpeting
the crushing of bodies under their adorned feet
gored on their guilded tusks
men pouring over the sides, down from the canopied lofts
loosing arrows and unleashing scimitars
yes darling
i learned much from the maharajahs
more from the maharati
and every fragrant oil reminded me of you
how i longed to give this world to you
all these things too beautiful for me to understand
but you
middle eastern oracle
you would have seen and guided
but i left you behind to rule
my spidery elegant script across the parchment
i should have written governing missives
sent back trade routes and intelligences by courier
but i was young
and seven years gone
i began to understand homesickness and longed only
for the silken skin and bronzed hair
i knew too briefly
so it was love letters the couriers carried
encoded to my only queen
my brilliant princess
i sent tokens
i sent peacock feathers and pearls
the spices you would like
i wept and smeared the ink
as i told of the accident befalling my best friend
not that you would care
you hated how intimate our friendship was
how intricately entwined we had been
i wrote of beucephalon’s fall
my only companion since childhood
you would understand
you’d loved Ugly-head
as we raced bareback around the dunes and shores of my capitol
yes love
i buried that horse in full state
with the honors befitting a soldier of rank
i sent yellow bellflowers
wrapped in parchment dried flat
you would know their true name
and you would absorb this alien country
more than i could
the mountain vistas
the wild wild valleys
i kissed that parchment carefully wrapped and tied in silk
dreaming of ruby lips and emerald eyes
never once caring if she was true
as long as she was still alive when i returned
i kissed that parchment sweetly
handed it to a courier
with a promise to be following soon
i’d had enough of seeking the edge of the earth
it was time to go home
i sent yellow bellflowers
the night before the arrow took me
the night before my death
breaking the only oath i held dear
tell me did you ever receive them love
back in alexandria safe and warm
my last breath was a mirage of you
but i think you’ve forgotten me
seven years was too long to make
a persian bride wait
amidst that world i never once understood
©️ 2007
Originally posted on my DeviantArt
Mischa Fox 