#reading a few weeks back. A. Mary is one of the most hypnotizing readers I've ever seen with this light sweet voice that sounds more like

[ravencromwell]

“The Eighth Son Of Ganbataar” by Mary Soon Lee

Once, when I was a boy of seventeen, there came into the horse country a scarred king whose destiny was ordained by dragons.

When King Xau first arrived to summer with our tribe, I saw his scarred hands and pictured the two of us battling demons side by side.

Instead the king herded sheep. Badly.

Worse, girls kept riding over to meet him, sparing not a single glance on me, the eighth son of the horse lord Ganbataar.

Then, ten days into King Xau's visit, my younger sister Sarnai went missing.

Every man and every woman of our tribe, plus seven of the king's guards and the king's wife rode out at dusk to look for her.

King Xau stayed behind. As did i, left to help with the children and guard the camp, a decision I stridently protested, careless of the trust my father had placed in me.

The king sat cross-legged on the grass, not even seeing to his own children, leaving that to their amah.

I heated stew.

The amah and I fed the children.

Dark. The king still sitting on the grass, a strain on his face which I took for guilt. His two remaining guards standing either side of him, his guards who might have joined the search if only Xau had let them— miles upon miles of windblown hills where Sarnai might be lying, Sarnai, my little sister, fearless but reckless.

Most of the riders had returned when the king at last stood up, unsteady on his feet, his captain supporting him as if he were ill.

Out of darkness, a horse came to the king, unsaddled, unbridled, a wild horse, and the king laid his scarred hands on its withers.

Then noise, lamplight, people pressing about the king, his guards tacking up fresh horses.

Just before they set out, the king and his guards and my father Ganbataar, the king spoke: "Let her brother come too."

He dipped his head to me, and I, I did not know what to think. Hard to let go of anger, but I mounted a horse and rode.

And the wild horse led the king through darkness to Sarnai, her ankle broken, her horse dead beside her (she having slit its throat after it stumbled and broke a leg).

Small beside King Xau’s other deeds, finding one reckless girl, but she was my sister, and all the long ride back to camp I rode double with her, holding her safe in my arms.

--from Mary Soon Lee’s Sign Of The Dragon

#I've been fascinated with this poem from the moment I heard #Mary Soon Lee #give a #poetry #reading a few weeks back. A. Mary is one of the most hypnotizing readers I've ever seen with this light sweet voice that sounds more like #singing than reading. but mostly! mostly it was just the whole idea of this piece: how skillfully it employs outsider pov to undercut our #expectations of a selfish lazy leader. the idea of winning the right to leadership--because somebody has! to take on the mantle of #leadership. by actually doing shit. and including your entire community: the acknowledgment that Xau was just supplementing all the work of #all those other people. and that he knows it too. by acknowledging all the work Ganbataar's son had done in guarding camp. the ways you win #loyalty by actions that often seem so trivial to anyone else. just. there's so much packed into this tiny gem of a vignette #and the entire idea of the collection: modern Chineese-inspired epic poetry. an entire inter-generational tale told in verse. delights my #poet's heart to pieces.