Kings and Chronicles 1

The sonnet I do not want to write

King David was old and advanced in years; and although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm. So his servants said to him, “Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her wait on the king, and be his attendant; let her lie in your bosom, so that my lord the king may be warm”. So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful. She became the king’s attendant and served him, but the king did not know her sexually. (1 Kings 1: 1-4).

I can’t know what it was like for you, Abishag,

on the crumpled skin of old King David,

smelling his breath quicken then ease.

Were you saddened, angered, sickened,

scared he’d stiffen in death or arousal;

or were you amused, saying, “I am young,

favoured by God and his chosen nation,

I will find profit in this royal position,

get a blessing from Gad and the good prophet Nathan!”?

 

Oh Abishag, I cannot sense your feelings

as I do for him: warm softness on limbs

intimations of strength, purpose, masculine…

but see, I’m slipping into a different poem,

into the sonnet I do not want to write.

 

2016