From ‘The Ballad of the Grieving Queen’ (continued)

by Jeffrey Burghauser (March 2026)

[In last month’s installment, the Queen learned of her husband’s death on the battlefield. She then sings the following two songs:]
–
–
[1]
–
Queen:
I’ll quaver a song
Unhappy to sing
Concerning a long
Perennial sting
Of woe: In the west
Resided a King.
____My heart is oppressed.
____My heart is oppressed.
–
The King had a Queen.
The Queen had a grove.
The grove had a green
Pergola that strove
To shelter a nest
From perils above.
____My heart is oppressed.
____My heart is oppressed.
–
The nest had a bird.
The bird had a throat.
The throat had a word
Philosophers quote,
That everyone blessed
Can master by rote.
____My heart is oppressed.
____My heart is oppressed.
–
The King is now dead.
The Queen pines away.
The songbirds have fled
From bowers a-splay
With pétrea, lest
They’re driven to say:
____“My heart is oppressed.
____My heart is oppressed.”
–
O where can we find
A scholar who charts
Those starscapes that bind
What Fortune disparts,
Delivering rest
To suffering hearts?
____My heart is oppressed.
____My heart is oppressed.
–
–
–
[2]
–
Queen:
____My king is dead.
____My king is dead.
Destroy the silver flute.
Unstring the cypress lute.
The shawls are rent; the instruments, forever mute.
–
____My king is dead.
____My king is dead.
The dusty Palestine
Of dole the Fates assign
To all of Adam’s progeny, at last, is mine.
–
____My king is dead.
____My king is dead.
Adorn the dusky steeds
In crested mourning weeds.
Unfurl the annals of the dead’s heroic deeds.
–
____My king is dead.
____My king is dead.
Let agony impale
Compassion on a nail.
Let Hell exhale. And let the women wail.
–
____My king is dead.
____My king is dead.
Illuminate the path.
Apply the perfect math
Of absolute, perpetual, enclosing wrath.
=

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Jeffrey Burghauser is a teacher in Columbus, Ohio. He was educated at SUNY-Buffalo and the University of Leeds. He currently studies the five-string banjo with a focus on pre-WWII picking styles. A former artist-in-residence at the Arad Arts Project (Israel), his poems have appeared (or are forthcoming) in Appalachian Journal, Fearsome Critters, Iceview, Lehrhaus, and New English Review. Jeffrey’s book-length collections are available on Amazon, and his website is www.jeffreyburghauser.com.

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