December 20

Perseverance

Knights in blue satin

and ladies in white

with gold script,

effervescent.

How could they know

how close I would come

to the legends?

Flirtations and

rosewater,

sweetmeats.

Red rose,

white rose:

balance,

beginnings,

hope,

love.

A dance,

a masque,

a battleground.

The battle

is yet to come.

Juliette Sebock is a Best of the Net-nominated poet and writer and the author of Mistakes Were Made, Micro, How My Cat Saved My Life and Other Poems, and Boleyn, with work forthcoming or appearing in a wide variety of publications. She is the founding editor of Nightingale & Sparrow, runs a lifestyle blog, For the Sake of Good Taste, and is a regular contributor with Marías at Sampaguitas, Royal Rose, Memoir Mixtapes, and The Poetry Question.

When she isn't writing (and sometimes when she is), she can be found with a cup of coffee and her cat, Fitz. Juliette can be reached on her website, juliettesebock.com, or across social media @juliettesebock.