IN
THE COURTYARD
“Mmm...…Maximus!” she
murmured, looking past the hanging drape
At the General in the
courtyard, pacing quickly in his cape.
She often watched him
thusly, unseen and quite alone;
It brought a certain… pleasure…to
her marrow and her bone.
Even agitated… weary… as
his pacing clearly showed,
Something… in his
presence… made it worth the endless road,
The path that she had
traveled since her husband’s death.
Husband? Could she remember , chest heaving with her
breath
As Maximus turned
quickly, his cape a flowing sail,
She feared her knees
might buckle or her heart might fail.
Long years and many
miles lay between a distant past,
Where the smiles all
had faded in a time that did not last.
He saw her, then, and
stopping, turned and met her eyes
There in the muddy
courtyard, there beneath the grey, grey skies.
The gladness she was
feeling stuck like clay upon her face
For he cared not to
see her…not now… not in this place.
Though he had paced
the courtyard, his mind was far away,
And he had no time to
greet her in the passage of this day.
She thought of times
in meadows when their youth was full a’bloom;
He thought only of
what Marcus had asked within his room.
Her eyes asked he
remember when they shared a time of grace,
But he was
interrupted, wanting only now to pace,
So that his booted
feet might match his blood’s quick flow
As all his brain cells
flashed…. arrows flamed from Roman bow.
He was angry she
presumed he wanted now to speak
Now… when all his
weary heart so wanted home to seek,
Knowing it was taken
from him… more years thrust in between…
Him and the family
that he wanted, but had so seldom seen.
She remembered
sitting in the garden… on the curving wall.
He tried to leave…she
stopped him…needing something more,
Needing him to open…just
a little… a long-closed Roman door.
He said the battle
had tired him, but she saw upon his brow
That something really
worried him, that he was facing now.
Perhaps… if she
reminded how he still lay in her prayer…
He would look at her
more kindly, would gentle his fierce stare?
And just for one
brief moment…at joint mention of each son…
He smiled…she saw his
softness as in times when they were one
And the future lay
before them… unlived… and full of…what?
But it had never come
to happen, ah, no,… no… it had…not.
He thanked her,
turned, and left her…his cape a whirling sail…
She thought her knees
might buckle… or that her heart would fail.
JO ANZALONE
