Today is National Poetry Day
I don’t usually write poetry but this is one I wrote many years ago based on a sad, true story told to me by a Maltese/Australian friend.
Malta is a woman
This island is a woman
surrounded by the sea,
but how can she still claim me?
Why won’t she set me free?
I left her for a new world,
a vast, exciting land.
I sailed across two oceans
to free her wedding band.
And in this new existence
I made a brand new start.
I found someone who loved me
and gave to her my heart.
For a few years we were happy,
my prospects all seemed bright.
We worked hard in the daytime,
and loved away the night.
But jealousy beset her,
the land that was my home,
she wanted me a prisoner,
she would not let me roam.
Her claim could not be broken
she crept into my mind,
and once a woman has been scorned
she never will be kind.
And so she pulled me home again
Now I’m a prisoner here.
My love I left behind me
Each day I pass in fear.
For though the chains of love are strong,
in my heart I know
The sea around my island
will never let me go.
