The Nights of Zanzibar

A knight was travelling afar.
Across a land he knew not well.
Passing desert and mountains
forest and bogs
steppes and rivers
deltas and glades
legions away.

In the foothills of the Gormek
He saw a castle glimmering
He saw a light shimmering
Mayhaps, at last
Someone was there.

Up to the castle gate.
No one to stop him.
No one to warn him.
No one to shout, "Stop! I say!"

Through the castle gate.
Into a court yard overgrown.
The tawanga vine is everywhere

There appears from the tower
A ghostly light
An amber hue
Mayhaps, at last,
Someone was there.

He climbed the tower
His armor clanking
His breath becoming harder and deeper as he climbed.

He opened the tower room\
And there she was.
The most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.


Who was sleeping.
And snoring
Her bare feet sticking out from under the covers.

What would wake her?
Many had tried.
All had failed.

But this knight had a secret tool.
This knight knew.
The woman loved stories,.
She would wake from her centuries old slumber,
If only he told her the right story.

He had with him an extraordinary book
One with a thousand stories
And one of these would wake her
He just knew it.

The Nights of Zanzibar by Randyll Meriweather.
That was the book he brought
May be the only copy on Earth

He began'
"Far off the golden pathway. past the gardens of Raymthia,
there was a village of quiet dimensions, a place where magic would slip through."

Did she stir?  Was that a brief flutter of her eyelids?

Only time will tell.