PHILIP II THE GOOD(1396-1467), DUKE OF BURGUNDY(1419-1467) SPENDS A NIGHT AT A PEASANT'S HUT IN THE WOODS

Based on an episode in The Waning of the Middle Ages(1919) by Johan Huizinga(1871-1945)

Head cleared, wandering lost

in the woods, the bald-headed duke

in falling darkness arrives to a

peasant's cottage. How

heavy that axe in your hand,

man of the soil -

nobody might ever know.

Will you get a reward? A title

- even a piece of land to call

your own? Surely not,

for great lords are great in words,

and expect gratitude to be reward

enough. How heavy that axe

in your hand, man of the soil

- nobody might ever know.

All through the night,

so close to your hand,

that heavy axe. The fire

burns on earthen floor,

the fire burns in your

chest and feverish mind.

Yet in the morning,

kneeling in dirt and shouting

'God bless you, Sire'

you watch him ride away,

that bald-headed duke

that was lost to the night,

Nobody might have ever known

but the heavy axe and you.

27.06,-15.11.2017