Author's Note: In the film 'Kingdom of Heaven', King Baldwin IV is portrayed as wearing a silver mask. This is inaccurate (no matter how beautiful and mysterious the mask is) because Baldwin would have had a difficult time breathing in the mask. In reality, Baldwin wore a veil to cover the deformities of his face. However, it is fun to mix a bit of fiction with reality, which is what this poem does.
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A silver mask sits silent in his hands.
Its polished surface reflects the face staring back,
but its hollow eyes sees not the troubled soul of the king.
The small enigmatic smile of the slight upturned lips
riddles a mystery—lost even to him.
This is the face his people wish to see on their king?
This was not his face,
but which king in history had no face?
The mask rests heavy in his hands,
and he cannot decide.
Why did his people not accept him for who he was
despite his dreadful condition?
Why did they turn their back on him
and sneer with their lips when he stood in their midst--
he--little less than a body but blazing in the soul?
In his opposite hand drapes the embroidered veil
which concealed his soul from men.
It had been the face of the king,
but now they want something more—eyes,nose, and lips
something to resemble them,
for perhaps they feared what his hands may wrought
if he ever turned his back
on them,
for they do not know him.
They do not know the sight of the silver gift kills him.
The mask resembles a soul
not his own but those who would control him
for who could rightly wear the face of a kingdom
and not lose himself to the hands
of evildoers like the smile on those cold lips?
A frowned tugs at the corners of his shredded lips
as he sets down the mask and lifts the veil to conceal him.
The silk slips through his fumbling fingerless hands,
but he secures it and closes his eyes feeling calm in his soul.
He had made the right choice.
He, asKing, would not wear the mask.
Resting on the velvet, the hollow eyes of the mask stares back.
The slightest hint of the smile on its lips
whispers of powers and riches beyond any king.
Emotionless, unreadable, and with a face of silver all shall fear him,
yet he made his choice.
He would not trade his soul
to be a pawn in a game of chess played by evil's hands.
He was King.
YOU ARE READING
King Baldwin IV
Historical FictionYear 1174, a boy at age thirteen is suddenly thrust into power upon the death of his father, King Amalric. He inherits a kingdom at war--the Kingdom of Jerusalem. However, he possesses a secret. He is dying of leprosy. Knowing he could be cast out o...
