“God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.” - Karen Blixen

The Only Thing I Ask

My life truly started with a plot
To marry a man I love not
Then to be cast away
On an unending plain
For over ten years I worked a coffee farm
Just to be tragically disarmed
Africa is no place for a woman, they told me
But do you think I listened, honestly
The man I call husband, though not much of one
Was never home, always gone
Absents makes the heart grow founder
Though it leaves the mind to wonder
If I seek comfort in another’s arms
Or be swept away by another man’s charms
Is that a wrong that I shall be convicted of
Or simply a pleasure that you supply me none of
At the age of 29 I was diagnosed with syphilis
Until it happens to you, you do not know that it truly exists
I was sent away to receive treatment
Never bearing children, but bearing with it
After eleven long years my husband and I divorced
So I then turn to my other source
But he will not marry me
Does he really love me
He too, is always away
Am I, once again, betrayed
So I left, in 1931, never to return
Now the doctors are concerned
After having syphilis and being prescribed mercury
Then suffering from heavy metal poisoning
Late in life I would suffer from a gastric ulcer
In which a third of my stomach would be removed
I strived for the 1954 Nobel Prize
But never was it mine
Heavy smoking would contribute to my end
But malnutrition would see me dead
I wish not that the world miss me
Need me
Speak of me
Or even know me
When I am gone I want no name
On the stone that marks my grave
So many names have I been
It would be difficult to fit them in
But if the world do anything for me, please this one simple task
Do not mourn but be silent is the only thing I ask…


“Who tells a finer tale than any of us. Silence does.” – Karen Blixen