Marble Moons
((Ashley Ann Walsh-Godfrey) (1875-1928)) Part Eight
Marble Moons (the Poem)
They say the sky above
Heaven’s dome,
Are scattered with Marble Moons…
For those who are
Sincere and true—
That your love
Still is the same,
That your life pleased
Him, the most, as Lord and King!...
And you kept your faith
In Him; thus, those
Marble Moons,
Above heaven’s dome
Will someday bow down
On bended knees to thee…
How can I not be singing…!
No: 2905/3-6-2011
By Ashley Ann Walsh-Godfrey
Ashley Ann Walsh Godfrey would have been fifty-one years old, in 1928, had she not died in 1887, at twelve years old; this day in 1928, her mother, Miss Ashley Walsh, in pacing in Sir Godfrey’s garden. Nothing could have prepared her for that shocking day, her daughter’s death, over thirty-five years ago, but you would not have guessed it, by her equanimity at the time.
In the capital city of Cuba, law and order in 1887 was bleak at best, there was a constant drag on it, in the city of Havana, vagabonds, ill-mannered hoodlums, doing nearly as they pleased, everywhere, whenever, pert near right out in the open, it was Ashley Ann on her way home from school, when one old man, vulgar and drunk chased her into an alley; a pretty girl, a favorite in her class.
He had cornered her, now vomiting in the alley…two men brawling fifty-yards away, disorderly at ever corner, at every nook; all cutthroats, seamen for the most part.
Who could be blamed for Ashley Ann’s rape and murder that day? To have her mother watch the kid, day and night was a second duty, and not fashionable for her, she never did, she never would have, consequently, anyone dare ask.
She was busy increasing her numbers and wealth, while the city of Havana, also got richer and richer. Gold, and goods, commerce was thriving, while the natives were getting more hostile: ultimately, a person only has 100% of themselves to give—to any one thing, or several things however one wishes to slice up the pie of life, their life, no matter which way you slice it though, there still is only 100% of you, and there is no more. To Ashley these were the hard facts of life in Havana; she gave 99% of her life to what she valued —, respect, power, money, the high of the buying and selling, and that one percent left, she gave to her daughter, and that was only a half percent, because her lover, Sir Godfrey, got the other half of one percent. That’s how it was.
Sir Godfrey, on that scornful day (her father) had cried out to Ashley—his mistress for forty-years, “Your daughter is with God in Heaven now!”
“Yes,” she remarked, “let her be with Him, it’s too damn hostile down here for her anyhow.”
Notes: Part of the book: “The Old Folks” sequel to “The Cotton Belt”
No: 761, 3-6-2011
