Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
"Did I bleed on the wrong bit of floor?"
I spoke - and fingered my neck.
For five days I had stared at that door,
I was theirs, at their call and their beck.
But I knew all the why and wherefore,
'Twas the start of a difficult trek.
I tried to ignore,
The blood and the gore,
While waiting for him to walk in through that door.
I was never pathetic and trusting,
I knew well how trust is repaid,
And we each of us made our own justice
By means of the gun and the blade.
But she asked me one day: "Do you trust me?"
I said: "Yes, I do, I'm afraid."
For it seems that there must be
A certain adjustment,
We break our own rules whene'er sentiment gushes.
She and I, we could both have been rich,
For I fooled all the banks of the world;
Things went off without ever a hitch,
Till they shot me and captured the girl.
And I lay there half dead in a ditch,
While the goon squad their sport had with her.
She jerked and she twitched,
But she would not snitch
And I wished to the gods that our places were switched.
The head of the great Federation,
The leader of starships and hordes,
Defender of all Terran nations,
Who ruled over vassals and lords,
Would certainly know the location
Of the man who must die at my sword.
"So all hands to stations!"
I cried out, impatient,
"We're off now to capture the head of all nations."
"I think he has lost all his senses;
"I think he has got a screw loose.
"If he thinks he can breach their defenses..."
"Be silent! I'll take no excuse,"
I said to the one who is densest,
"I'll have my foe's neck in a noose."
I'd scale walls and climb fences,
Evading their sensors,
I'd speak to the ruler, alone and defenseless.
I never desired revolution,
I never did dream of a coup,
For revolt is a sorry solution
When rebels but build all anew,
Reestablish with new resolution
The chains they sought once to undo.
So I felt no confusion
On what I was choosing:
A word with the chief — let the tyrant go loose then.
In a castle well guarded by cellmen,
The ruler was lodging, we knew,
And though I have no taste for rebellion,
It seems there are others who do;
For it chanced, when we came, one was welling,
The courtyard with corpses was strewn.
There is no way of telling
When rabble's rebelling,
They rise up so often, they're hardly worth quelling.
In a dungeon, and chained to the wall, then,
We found our illustrious ruler.
There's nothing to hurt like a fall,
When you're highest of all, and none crueler
Than jeers at a tyrant in thrall,
When it but fans the flame with more fuel.
But I cared not at all
For the bitterest gall
The despot must swallow, if ever he fall.
I had only one wish, one desire,
Just to know the true name of my foe,
My object was but to inquire,
Then to let the poor president go.
But the beaten eyes sparkled with fire,
And the voice queried: "Why must you know?"
My expression was dire,
"The man in your hire,
"It was he caused my one true love's life to expire."
Then the ruler's lips curled in a smile,
"Release me, I'll tell you the name."
The tyrant's eyes sparkled with guile;
I'd oblige, but just then a girl came
Who had led the revolt all this while,
And I viewed her with shock and in pain.
For there, soft and mild,
Like a lost little child,
Stood my only true love, but my soul filled with bile.
She saw me. She ran to embrace me.
I stood, cold, my heart full of dread.
"Why did you not come for me? Face me!"
I answered: "Because you were dead."
"But you see, I'm alive!" Not a trace of
Her guilt showed in all that she said.
She had lied with such grace
All my wits were effaced;
That was then, but not now, I've grown wiser apace.
"All near you were marked for collection,"
The other thug said in the cave,
For intelligence watched, undetected,
And no one they saw could be saved.
So I asked her with steady inflection:
"Who hid you? Who gave you a haven?"
"My husband," she raved.
"He was ever a knave.
"I never did love him, but he kept me safe."
"Your husband," I pondered a second,
"He wasn't ..." I spat out the name.
'Twas the ruler who answered my question:
"No, not even he knew her game,
"Now you know." Then my love drew her weapon,
My love and my foe were the same.
Not pausing to aim,
I shot at my flame,
And she fell to the floor; she was dying, in pain.
The tyrant still watched me politely,
I stared at the corpse full of grief,
"Convince yourself now," said to spite me,
"That this did not happen. Believe!"
So I set free the despot to fight me,
But the shot missed its mark, some relief.
A despot so mighty
Rose up to smite me,
But the rumor of death was exagg'rated ... slightly.
"Did I bleed on the wrong bit of floor?"
I spoke - and fingered my neck.
For five days I had stared at that door,
I was theirs, at their call and their beck.
But I knew all the why and wherefore,
'Twas the start of a difficult trek.
I tried to ignore,
The blood and the gore,
While waiting for him to walk in through that door.
I was never pathetic and trusting,
I knew well how trust is repaid,
And we each of us made our own justice
By means of the gun and the blade.
But she asked me one day: "Do you trust me?"
I said: "Yes, I do, I'm afraid."
For it seems that there must be
A certain adjustment,
We break our own rules whene'er sentiment gushes.
She and I, we could both have been rich,
For I fooled all the banks of the world;
Things went off without ever a hitch,
Till they shot me and captured the girl.
And I lay there half dead in a ditch,
While the goon squad their sport had with her.
She jerked and she twitched,
But she would not snitch
And I wished to the gods that our places were switched.
The head of the great Federation,
The leader of starships and hordes,
Defender of all Terran nations,
Who ruled over vassals and lords,
Would certainly know the location
Of the man who must die at my sword.
"So all hands to stations!"
I cried out, impatient,
"We're off now to capture the head of all nations."
"I think he has lost all his senses;
"I think he has got a screw loose.
"If he thinks he can breach their defenses..."
"Be silent! I'll take no excuse,"
I said to the one who is densest,
"I'll have my foe's neck in a noose."
I'd scale walls and climb fences,
Evading their sensors,
I'd speak to the ruler, alone and defenseless.
I never desired revolution,
I never did dream of a coup,
For revolt is a sorry solution
When rebels but build all anew,
Reestablish with new resolution
The chains they sought once to undo.
So I felt no confusion
On what I was choosing:
A word with the chief — let the tyrant go loose then.
In a castle well guarded by cellmen,
The ruler was lodging, we knew,
And though I have no taste for rebellion,
It seems there are others who do;
For it chanced, when we came, one was welling,
The courtyard with corpses was strewn.
There is no way of telling
When rabble's rebelling,
They rise up so often, they're hardly worth quelling.
In a dungeon, and chained to the wall, then,
We found our illustrious ruler.
There's nothing to hurt like a fall,
When you're highest of all, and none crueler
Than jeers at a tyrant in thrall,
When it but fans the flame with more fuel.
But I cared not at all
For the bitterest gall
The despot must swallow, if ever he fall.
I had only one wish, one desire,
Just to know the true name of my foe,
My object was but to inquire,
Then to let the poor president go.
But the beaten eyes sparkled with fire,
And the voice queried: "Why must you know?"
My expression was dire,
"The man in your hire,
"It was he caused my one true love's life to expire."
Then the ruler's lips curled in a smile,
"Release me, I'll tell you the name."
The tyrant's eyes sparkled with guile;
I'd oblige, but just then a girl came
Who had led the revolt all this while,
And I viewed her with shock and in pain.
For there, soft and mild,
Like a lost little child,
Stood my only true love, but my soul filled with bile.
She saw me. She ran to embrace me.
I stood, cold, my heart full of dread.
"Why did you not come for me? Face me!"
I answered: "Because you were dead."
"But you see, I'm alive!" Not a trace of
Her guilt showed in all that she said.
She had lied with such grace
All my wits were effaced;
That was then, but not now, I've grown wiser apace.
"All near you were marked for collection,"
The other thug said in the cave,
For intelligence watched, undetected,
And no one they saw could be saved.
So I asked her with steady inflection:
"Who hid you? Who gave you a haven?"
"My husband," she raved.
"He was ever a knave.
"I never did love him, but he kept me safe."
"Your husband," I pondered a second,
"He wasn't ..." I spat out the name.
'Twas the ruler who answered my question:
"No, not even he knew her game,
"Now you know." Then my love drew her weapon,
My love and my foe were the same.
Not pausing to aim,
I shot at my flame,
And she fell to the floor; she was dying, in pain.
The tyrant still watched me politely,
I stared at the corpse full of grief,
"Convince yourself now," said to spite me,
"That this did not happen. Believe!"
So I set free the despot to fight me,
But the shot missed its mark, some relief.
A despot so mighty
Rose up to smite me,
But the rumor of death was exagg'rated ... slightly.
