Daughter of Zaos

The shift of time helped her to ease into her next chore

Somewhere above the desk on a shelf just out of reach

It sat
Waited for her to bring it down and visit with it a bit
The debate within her was pointless

She knew soon, she would be at the wooden desk
Standing upon it like she shouldn’t and bringing down the figurine with great care
It needed tending
It needed dusting and love to bring it out of its shabby lonely state

Why she left it out of reach she hadn’t decided
It was a lovely object
Maybe this was why

Such a lovely object for sure must be enjoyed but also to relish it
Upon special occasions instead of having it be handled by every passerby in the house
Made it feel largely more special to her

Not every person could be trusted to handle such an object
Twice she had entered the room only to cross over the doorstep without bringing it down
This time, she was certain when she brought the object down

It would gleam and pierce into the darkness of her soul bringing out her happiness
Ending all thoughts that festered instead of bubbling with joy
So she stood, upon said desk with papers strewn about

With careful placement of feet so as not to slip
The turquoise inlay was intact
And the coral was too

It looked lovely and made her smile
She nearly forgot to get down
She turned her heel and slipped on a paper
Grabbing at air and missing everything within reach

She landed sideways In a heap
With the figurine still in her hand
Her body so bruised it hurt to stand

How foolish of her to have it placed so
So that she had to stand on tippy toes
Throngs of dust bunnies had followed her fall

Landed softly on her shoulders and let her know
The maid she forgot to call
Another one that shouldn’t shuffle about and touch things that weren’t hers
Turquoise and coral inlay figurines

Tsk tsk

She held her arm out and stretched her wrist
The eyes in the face looked back at her
With enchantment not disgust she told herself she was sure

She chided herself for falling off task
And rubbed the golden skin with her soft cashmere
Smiled and sort of purred

Daughter of Zaos had found the rapturous song
When you touched the figurine in such a way
It sung a sweet melody that purred back at her

Golden statue with virtue
Despite inlay and sheen of lust
Had a commonplace name that when called out is just

Melody

So fitting and true
Sings a melody when touched in such a way
A melody for you

You could feel the tension
The figurine was still in her adept hands
She soothed herself by rather absentmindedly caressing Melody
While she hummed out the tune that was repeating itself in her head

It was vague
But there
It begged to be let out
Just like the figurine had begged to be taken down from its perch amongst trivial things

Such as old journals and noteworthy notes
Why she kept such things, she scolded herself
She set the object d art upon the desk furthermost further away

From the edge

and reached to the milky white dish for a treat
The chocolate melted
Upon her tongue leaving a trail of goodness to be savored for many minutes

In these minutes that made up her moment of recollection she remembered
Just why she had taken the figurine down on this day

It was Ramadan

But she heard rama lama ding dong in her head and knew this to be sacrilegious
Again with the chiding
Except this time the figurine did look back at her in disgust

Shame shame

Tsk tsk

The monster in her did exist
Really? Rama lama  ding dong?
Such things didn’t exist
Except in her world with Chuck and the twist
The twist that nearly sent her reeling off the desk

She should polish the figurine till it shines
Break out in joyous rhyme
Leave the ram a lama ding dong for another time

Maybe she should not have taken the object
The beautiful figurine down from its sacred perch
Where it was not to be bothered by such feather heads as her
Rubbing and pretending to be dusting but really looking for the secret

To bring out its melody in golden keys
She had seen them before
The keys that unlocked the hidden door

Her father thought she didn’t know but Daughter of Zaos
Paid attention to this
To things amiss

To hidden doors and such
To melodies that sing out as if by bird
On wings of prayer they seemed to fly

To girls and maidens but not to the skies
For they were too open and fragile and at the same time robust
It seemed Melody needed reigning in a touch

She knew her power and wasn’t big headed
Wasn’t even really sure where she was headed

She didn’t have much say and maybe this was why
Melody was happy to peer up at the sky
Daughter call out

Sing to me
Sing to rule
And sing in key

At least a bit she hoped to sing
For this made Melody become Queen
Queen of day and ruler of night

Melody governed over everything in sight
How this mattered she didn’t know
For Melody wasn’t much of anything

Just a statue without a soul
She smiled back lazily
Admired her own inlay fancy enough to dress a king

That was it she told herself
Why be Queen of all when Kingship mattered more and laid subject to thralls
Slave of lust
Slave of dust

Melody sang to end all calls
The girl, daughter of Zaos lay enchanted by her
Waivered and  giddy

 

Pushed off the desk and stepped to toes
Danced a whirl and giggled a throw
Suddenly heady and heavy as if drunk by wine
Melody and Daughter of Zaos danced in perfect time

 

The keys they fell
and clanked to floor
dented the wood a bit  

and she did implore

 

Melody sing, sing sweet song to me
I care not for what treasures your kings and keys do bring

 

Silly daughter of Zaos, 

the Melody is the treasure
the keys are simply bygone, to be dismissed forever 

TW 352p 4.6.14.