A word by any other... word...

 Discipline, discipline... bah! Working on it, but I'm not going to crack down on myself, since writing is something I love to do and I refuse to make it a chore. That said, I do thrive with routine, so now's as good a time as any to do another Word of the Day micro-fiction in lieu of anything deeper.


Today's word:

Palinode: A poem in which the poet retracts a view or sentiment expressed in a former poem. https://www.wordgenius.com/words/palinode?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1678488986


As much as I enjoyed visiting the court for a celebration, I could only find admiration in me for the non-living things that cluttered every room with a painstaking sense of décor. One could almost taste the near-palpable cloud of mingled panic and practiced calm that the servants exuded in their nightly changing of paintings, sculptures, furniture, rugs, and the like.

No less did the people express the well-practiced and professional air of flippant distaste, gossiping and scorning anything that might encourage their sycophants and nemeses toward the belief that they possessed more than they did in wealth, status, or ability.

I loathed them. But the clothing was nice to look at.

While I knew most of the people, I cared little for their petty placations and greasy flattery. Any instant I was within reach of their gobbling gaze they sucked me into conversation about this border, that marriage, and all the while I allowed them to talk over and around me while I examined the neat beading and embroidery and tight seams of their clothing, the weavings of their hair styles, and the perfect layers of their boots and tiny shoes.

My siblings managed and soothed everything around me, and I was thoroughly grateful. It was rare that I was inclined to speak - I had recited a moving palinode of forty lines two seasons previously - but when I was invited to our capital home to enjoy the festivities, I grew more silent that ever I was on our country estates.

The life of a prince was not a simple one.

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