THE ALBATROSS

 "It hangs discarded from the mast,bone white,foam tosseda chimera of diomedeidae* -the Albatross.
Coleridge wrote of its fame "Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay, that made the breeze to blow,
the boat ne'er to stay" now you shall forever witness the shame -this deed will carry your name!
So they draped the bird around her neck.Her legs faltered,
 her heart wept. Its feathers were weighted and wet,not from a bow or blood shedding arrow, but the tears flowing freely for her debt.
She had betrayed her loverto make off with one  - such anotheronce she had deceived him only to need him, the decree was written -she'd forever be governed by guilt.
For to live aloneis indeed solitary confinementwhy the need for such a reminder?The Albatross is deadyet he lives in her head            along with the memories                      that bind her....

BjR  October 20, '09
*Any one of fourteen species of very large seabirds, family Diomedeidae; metaphorically, a guilty burden.