ONE NIGHT WAS BORN
a royal child
Windows shattered the rain was wild
The queen rejoiced The king ran inside He looked at his son his eyes went wide
The baby had hair the color of milk
His body was healthy soft as silk
Still the father was frozen He did nothing but stare at the white of his lashes and the white of his hair
You’ve birthed an old man
was all he could say This child is cursed and he tore him away
The mother then cried The babe did, too
He cried in the way babes often do
Amid protests and screams that terrible king
strapped the child to his back and did a terrible thing
He climbed a mountain his arms growing stiff Left the baby to die
at the top of a cliff
The wind was screaming the child was, too
He screamed in the way children often do
when their parent is vile
and stupidity reigns when delusion
wins
and intellect wanes
From on high watched a beast who didn’t like what she heard Simorgh, Simorgh,
a magnificent bird
Her heart was unmatched her magic unknown
She snatched up the child to raise as her own
With four other chicks
the boy grew in her nest He was happy and loved and knew he was blessed
She warned him that one day
he’d have to return
to a life he’d not known to a role he’d not learned
He rejected this warning but Simorgh insisted
His destiny was written
it could not be resisted
News reached him one day that a woman still cried That an empire was failing that his father might die
Simorgh brought him finery that he wore without joy
to return to the palace he’d not known as a boy
He said his farewells with an ache in his heart to the family he’d chosen
whom he’d loved from the start
Then he seated himself on his mother’s back
and she tore through the sky with a deafening crack
Color exploded when she took flight
She landed at the palace in a shower of light
None would forget
the day Zaal had returned
The way the world brightened the way his father had burned
Zaal took the throne
he was always meant to claim But he would never forget
his true mother’s name
