When the Phoenix Falls

                   
                   When the Phoenix Falls          
The queen wore black. It was not a color befitting to royalty, nor was it a color associated with her vibrant, thriving kingdom. Her advisors beseeched and bribed her with pretty things in every color of the rainbow. Silks of flaming red, Chiffons in violets and blues, filmy organdy. Nothing would tempt her, so the queen wore black.
The queen wore black. The public thought her odd, with her ornate hoods that hid the dark rings that circled her midnight eyes. Men and women gossiped about their queen. None of them were as old as she, her face must be as weathered and gnarled as a tree. She must be ashamed of her faded looks, stolen away by the cruel years. Though the people talked, they never dissented for all they had known was peace. Her subjects were content, so the queen wore black.
The queen wore black. Letters came in every day from princes and kings. From far and wide they arrived only to be locked away for the queen would not take time from her day. She attended council and ruled well, but in love with neither king or prince she fell. For who would want a rotting heart, that split and tore and broke apart. She mourned the loss of her beating heart, so the queen wore black.
The queen lived in black. She never wanted to be a queen, nor was she born to be one. But when forces of malice threaten to obliterate your people there is not one thing you wouldn't do. How could she let people fight and die for her? To waste their lives and effort in vein. For the truth was, the threat was too great, and if they marched they sealed their fate. The queen killed them all, for in her midnight heart tongues of flame roared and threatened to tear her apart. Her body seared with power as they burned to dust leaving a powdered husk of the mighty forces that used to be. The queen cannot take back what she has done, nor can she die and be released from the regret soon to overrun. The weight on her shoulders became more with every step, so the queen lived in black.