For Erik.

*

“Your destiny has arrived, my daughter.”

I came down from my father’s house
garbed in the jade and gold of my grandmother.
Each footstep trembled on the stair

but as I stumbled over the edge of my silks
I saw you waiting for me
with orchids at the east gate.

*

We will know each other
as givers of rings, and swear someday
like the state of North Dakota:
liberty and union, now and forever,
one and inseparable.

*
*
*

Do you remember that man
with a mouth as rich as a blackletter Bible,
and as unreadable?

I would have quit my father’s house for him.

*

On an early evening in June
after he and I had taken green tea in the garden
and watched the gargoyles frolic
on the flying buttresses,
he left me alone to wait for the first stars.

*
*
*

Among your predecessors
I could count princes who had gold
and who filled their houses with silver.

I can outgrow that need for riches
that ruled my younger days,
and forego the love of panicked bells and sharpened blades;
promise me only

that there will be no more blood, nor axes,
and no other Northman
but you.