The Bard & I
Ah Will, we were not meant for one another,
For ours is not a marriage of the minds.
What can I say, my literary brother ?
We’re poets both, but very diff’rent kinds.
So yours the fame and wealth and adulation,
And mine the anonymity and debt –
But then again, we glean our exhortation
From very diff’rent mistresses, I bet !
For I could never write your verse, nor wish to –
And you, I’m sure, could never capture mine.
So you be Zeus, and I shall try for Vishnu –
And keep my metre dry, and hold the line.
And if some day I reach your heady skill –
I’ll have the way – but always lack the will.
This poem was kindly accepted in the Spring 2025 edition of WestWard Quarterly.
Concerning the left panel at the top, are we to believe that an exhausted and demoralised man-of-action such as the Seargeant (who is apparently suffering a head wound) would really speechify and wax lyrical ? To the point, man !
Rhyming Couplets 