Month of Poetry #5: Vashti

Last year, as part of Month of Poetry, I wrote a cycle of poems based on characters from the Narnia books. This year I thought I'd try a cycle on Maligned / Mentioned-In-Passing women of the Bible. First up is Vashti, the first queen of Persian King Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther, who gets herself disgraced and demoted by refusing to answer the king's summons to appear at his banquet for him to show her off to his nobles. I am greatly in sympathy with Vashti; the King sounds like an arse, frankly.

Because I'm keen to practice the form more, I've written it as a Sevenling.

Vashti

Beautiful, I am beautiful, crowned or crownless
With wit enough to please a king, yes,
And merry, with my maidens, when I feast -

Proud, too, nostrils flaring like a blood horse at foolish commands
Not afraid of power or cowed by brutality, no,
And fierce enough to stand against a king, who says come -

Wrapped in my defiance, the trek away was long.

- Kathy, 5/1/15