The Suitor

sing your song for me
for four hundred nights
beneath my window
and I will be yours

and you will be mine
and so he came night
after nighty night
with his toy guitar

in rain and snow and
sleet and thunderstorms
past snarling bloodhounds
wasps and scorpions

and then the neighbors
started in with the
eggs and tomatoes
before finally

smashing his guitar
thinking he'd then go
away but he just
sang a capella

so week after week
he stood under her
window and sang her
her song even when

she was out dancing
with somebody else
and the seasons passed
and the year turned round

and that fateful night
finally arrived
when he rode up on
a white charger dressed

as a knight in, yes,
shining armor, tuned
his brand new guitar,
after removing

his gauntlets, of course,
cleared his throat and then
he said, “I forgot the
words,” and rode away