"The ballade is a fairly complicated verse form with a heavy stress on rhyme. It is an old form. French in origin,...of three stanzas, followed by an envoi (a short final stanza) that addresses an important person and sums up the point of the poem."
--Handbook of Poetic Forms, 21
Sarah died brokenhearted
for the sake of a beloved son
and while Abraham bartered
strange souls of God, a choice cave of Ephron,
Sarah was, at heart, alone.
In her dreams, a bloody knife,
a reckless king, a child's bone --
the span of Sarah's life.
Chosen -- forced -- a life apart
mercy rarely shown
in exchange, a bed too hard --
too beautiful -- unreal conditions
and far from home.
Adrift in tidal winds of strife
so much unknown --
the span of Sarah's life.
While new gold bands adorn her arms,
Rebekah, though also chosen,
chooses. Though offered her part
in God's story, though driven,
she goes, willingly, to Canaan
to become a rich young wife.
She is drawn and she responds.
The span of Sarah's life.
Daughter, reap what our mother has sown --
new mistress of the tent, strive
to surf God's wild stormwinds blown
-- the span of Sarah's life.