What Rose wanted

 was for me to land

 with my crew, racing

 to her in the stealth

 of night to bring

 her fast to our boats.

 She wanted Mass

 in chapel the next

 day and jeweled

 windows braiding colors

 across her face. She

 wanted bright torches

 of me and the flames

 of every star. Look, she

 said, they go to conquer

 some army like themselves

 in night fields far. Conquer

 me, she said, make me

Crusade. 

 

 

Charles Bane, Jr. is the American author of three collections of poetry including the recent ” The Ends Of The Earth: Collected Poems (Transcendent Zero Press, 2015) and “The Ascent Of Feminist Poetry”, as well as “I Meet Geronimo And Other Stories” (Avignon Press, 2015) and “Three Seasons: Writing Donald Hall (Collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University). He created and contributes to The Meaning Of Poetry Series for The Gutenberg Project.