[John Riley]

I Am Not A Prince

My presence there was suffered by the men who held me by the arms. The back of their hands were covered with thick, dark hair and I could feel the callouses on their fingers but could not see their faces. They stood a few inches behind and lifted me up and down by the shoulders. My feet were either waving above the soil or resting on the fine dirt inside the corral. My eyes could only sway over the audience seated in bleachers. It was intended that I be proud of the size of the crowd I had drawn and I remembered to do so. The crowd was large but no one seemed happy. I didn't see a smile. I did not know why they were determined to maintain their stoic quiet. I wasn't a spy slipping in from an enemy tribe, or an alien from lands too distant for the audience to know existed. I was chosen for this honor but knew nothing of the honor bestowed. I had lived in this town since birth, only once stepping out of the town's limit to bring back a pet dog that ran away from one of my overseers on the town's council. As I grew older, I noticed the other children in the town had two people who cared for them, but my life was guided by the council of five men who only had numbers for names. I was scolded relentlessly for crossing the city borders but my plea for the safety of the dog eventually worked me back into the council's good graces. It wasn't until I started noticing how the light glowed on the charm of a girl's face, or the loveliness of an elegant neck, that I was quarantined in a windowless room. The men beside me in the corral did not make a sound as they lifted and dropped me as though I was the churner in an old butter maker. Then they lifted me higher than before and began walking toward the opposite side of the corral, my feet dangling foolishly as we moved closer to the spectators who began to rise from their seats and move down from the stands and my eyes, as though they were controlled by a mind I had no knowledge of, focused intently on the worn wood of the corral fence until all I could see were the gathered towns peopled all with a look of precise intent in their eyes.