Magdelena

Magdelena

Gail Manfre

I am so very pleased to be able to post some of Gail Manfre's poems here on my site. I hope there are many more in the future.

Gail, self-proclaimed ragin' cajun, Mary Kay guru, font of all things Italian and all trivia Star Trek, as well as Zorro, has an eye for detail that most of us can only dream of having, whether in poetry, as here, or in her longer stories.

For other stories and poems in Gail's portfolio, please check out Enmascarado, the mother of all GW Zorro fanfiction sites...

When I first saw you again at your hacienda

You did not wish to meet with me at all.

Yet when your father persuaded you to come down,

And you walked over to me sitting at the piano

The years melted away, time then did not exist

Diego my love, my heart for you, it called.

The privacy you wanted to share with me

I read in your sweet, dazzling hazel eyes.

Ah, but that was taken from us by my aunt,

And Comandante Garcia. But when you covered

My lips with your own dear most pleasant ones

Ah, Dear Savior up above I thought I would die.

Could we regain and recover what we had

Felt for each other when you saw me again

In your sala, knowing that both our fathers

Were eager to announce our engagement?

Once again we only had eyes for each other

I thought that on our deep love I could depend.

Yet whom did I meet on that wonderful night?

There appeared that venomous cobra, the Magistrado.

He cornered me and asked for the Eagle's feather

Which I had concealed in my midnight blue silk fan.

A strange look passed over your handsome face;

You knew what that feather meant to Galindo

I fretted and worried the rest of the evening,

Because you avoided looking and speaking to me

Don Alejandro noted my distress and asked

What was amiss. I like and said I believed that Diego

Became angry with me for no reason. So deep

Was I in the plot all reason and logic was lost to me.

When you helped me into the carriage, your lips

As they brushed against my right hand were cold.

My father was puzzled over your decision not to

Ask him for his permission to marry me. What could I

Say? Then my heart nearly stopped as I noticed we

Were being followed. What use now was the Eagle's gold?

The Eagle's henchman my father he did wound,

But as I looked over my shoulder, I saw El Zorro

Coming, riding on Tornado like the wind. You leapt

Aboard the carriage and together we did manage

To toss the Magistrado's lethal agent onto the road.

You told my father that back to Mexico City we should go.

El Zorro, you asked me what fame or fortune did I seek

Because you now knew the extent of the Eagle's plot. I

Wondered aloud why you did not let the hired man

Kill me. You replied, "I shall be asking myself that

Question for a long time." Oh, then you said my name in

The same manner Diego did. Bitter tears fell from my eyes.

For now I realized El Zorro's secret, his true identity.

'Twas my precious Diego, he whom I had cruelly driven

Away from my heart, by aligning myself with thieves and

The vermin of the earth. That night I killed your love

For me. I was the murderer of Galindo's henchman;

To have back your love, my life for yours I would have given.