~BERNARDINE EVARISTO~

THE PRICE YOU PAY, 
MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE

---

 

Bread and cheese, baked eggs, 
fish in spicy sauces, I pondered jumping 

into the Walbrook, but where would I go? 
Dad would as soon as kill me, I could 

not involve the girls, for Felix would hunt 
me down and make them pay, and to leave 

the city wall was to risk unknown horrors. 
Was my punishment to come? 

A husband could do what he liked 
and many an errant wife ended up 

in an unmarked grave outside the city walls. 
I did not scream, though, hammering 

on the door for forgiveness, 
but accepted what was due. 

I had relished a death so sweet that nothing 
would ever match it again; 

nascentes morimur, from the moment 
of being born, we die, after all. 

I had lived my life.
 
 

© by Bernardine Evaristo