I come undone and any ploy,
Insanity’d be welcome now,
They stroll toward me (by Fate employed)
An armless man with pregnant spouse.
An angel hands a lyre to me,
The world turns lucid — crystal glassed,
While they, called up by new marquee,
Will gape at Charlie’s latest farce.
Why does in such inequity
Exhaust his earth-alloted time
This calm, composed amputee
Whose limb now rots in foreign clime?
As they stride home — movie’s out,
An armless man and pregnant spouse,
Breeze raises empty sleeve in doubt
Insanity’d be welcome now!
I take a whip of rusty hue
And with a sharp and wretched cry
I strike the angels through and through
And angels through the street wires fly.
And I recall a Venice square
Small, startled doves in disarray
From my beloved’s feet to air
A wing-like wave sashayed away.
And now, en vogue, remove my hat
And toward the armless man I go,
I give his sleeve the lightest pat
And say these words, though somewhat slow,
«Beg pardon, when I’ll dwell in hell
For arrogant ways- my fair due…
Will roll my rock; may you fare well
When you relax in Heaven’s pew.
You’ll calmly soar in paradise
Gaze at men’s vale from distant skies.
Divine tunes and views arise —
For those, in gleaming, wing-like guise.
Could you from fresh, crisp morning heights
One feather fling to me, below?
Like snowflake it will alight
And down my burned chest it will flow.»
The armless man is facing me
And smiles, as if he’s somewhat shy,
His bowler hat he does not tip,
And they depart without reply.