First written for online 10th grade English course in spring 2022, awarded Scholastic Art & Writing Contest regional Gold Key (poetry).  

 

She wore stars in her hair, yet she was mourning—

She drifted across the stones and uttered no sound

as if she had left her name behind in Spring.

 

Alas! Hast the buds not bloomed to hear her sing

As she did ere her mortal spirits had drowned.

She wore stars in her hair, yet she was mourning,

 

Young ones played around the wildflower ring

but she’d refused the games without a pound

as if she had left her name behind in the Spring,

 

Her fate had been predestined to serve the King

The virgin youth that shed blessings to the crowned

She wore stars in her hair, yet she was mourning

 

Her unfulfilled hopes that she won but a wing—

She would unknot her bounded feet o’er the bound

as if she had left her name behind in Spring,

 

Perhaps the day has come to wring

away her woes to embrace the stories unfound

as if she had left her name behind in Spring

She wore stars in her hair, yet she was mourning…