rich merchant

Rich I am
I trade with Venice
Constantinople
and the lands of the infidels
villein born yet
the roughest thing
my hand has held
is a purse
or perhaps a pen

I'll talk to you
Lord
and I won't grovel
my wife wears gold lace pearls
and other costly things
you'd think her noble
talk to me fair dear
Lord
or see what
money can do.


[Loosely based on a passage in Life on a Mediaeval Barony by W. S. Davis.]