Like Palace Prostitutes

Like palace concubines,
We lay in wait with dreadful anticipation
With more than just our ears open wide,
Ready to take in more than just words.
Kept alive by glitter and part time meals,
Treated like royal dogs as we smile on our knees,
Covered in per-fumes and rough caresses.

We still keep mum for this is tradition for ages
And our heart beats have no say,
Let alone a presence in the royal hearts.
Before us great men have been slayed
And our lips glued red to keep them shut.

They have yielded swords to foreign soils,
As we dreaded slavery that their loss would reap,
But they have let us swim in spoils
And choose death of the captured like sheep.

Like palace prostitutes we have lived,
Each day scrubbing our faces clean for kings,
Anticipating love and bliss in equal proportion,
Awaiting retirement, to earn shameful pension.