Jake's Flea Market

let a lesser habsburg softened 
by the memory of nora’s beauty sigh
lose sleep   daydream   bank
with an absent mind   lose fortunes

give him that stallion raised
in your father’s stable

that one you rode
into wittenberg   let him saddle
ride to the low countries to search
to find nora   to be soft eyed
to a faster melting
soft voiced into a liquid

let him be cushioned into engagement
feather bedded into a wedding

let him set
in whatever mold marriage is

learn how the raged seas
of an ungrateful girl’s tantrums can be calmed

no   how a noah’s share of rain
cried by a spoiled girl can be stopped

no   let him be the one who
by betrayal hardens