Deliver this to Caliban

Recalcitrant Caliban,

Thought I’d let you know

Miranda utters curses

with your flair these days.

Strange.

I always thought

she’d make a perfect princess.

She often tells me,

Father, your brave new world

has let me down.

Ferdinand has his court,

and I’m just a souvenir

from the island he holds his own,

the island, once your kingdom,

is his by right, or so he says,

the island, once my home,

is but a thinning plot-device

for him.

The tempest is not mentioned

in those pithy measured sentences

he metes out.

I smile at his people,

they aren’t mine. Here, everyday

is a tempest

for I’m Ferdinand’s creature

deformed and defiled,

yet, he whispers softly at night-

his fingers gripping my neck

firmly, cautiously,

I gave you a brave new world

Miranda, look and be awed

I saved you from yourself

Miranda,

so smile, Miranda, smile.

Monstrous Caliban,

with regret,

I shall send

some ancient magic

her way to starve her

bursting insides,

stitch her gaping heart

now raw,

soon deadened,

and pitch her into darkness

again.

If she rises from the sea,

she’ll take shelter

within your rock.