The Beaver King, Cautionary Tales of Medieval Dysfunction

An Ode to Drucelia

She believes herself clever.

She believes the quick remark is the same as understanding.

She believes confidence alone gives weight to her words.

She is young.

New to the matter.

Certain in the way those without history often are.

This Minstrelle has lived the years she only observes.

What is known here was learned through time, cost, and consequence—

not through watching, not through commenting,

not through arriving late and speaking early.

What she takes for wit is familiarity without depth.

What she takes for insight is opinion without experience.

What she takes for importance is noise mistaken for presence.

Age is not the measure.

Duration is.

And duration teaches what cleverness alone cannot.

This Minstrelle knows better

because she has been here longer,

stood in it longer,

and remained when others did not.

That difference needs no defense or plea.

It is simply what endures, and what does not, you see.