Thursday, August 9, 2012

The Redball Express


A slightly earlier version of this poem first appeared on my Richard Musto blog -- it's essentially the same except for four new lines at the beginning of the second stanza.


The Redball Express


Write what you know about
Is what the teachers always say 
At the Famous Writers’ Academy
So I have been drawn
Time and again
As to a lifetime quest
And now find myself 
The self-appointed chronicler
Of Richard Musto’s ride
On the Redball Express

A train to nowhere
Arriving fast
Just as from first to last
Various members
Of my immediate family
Have too often succumbed
To the overpowering tendency
To gamble without self-restraint

For me now the problem has 
Assumed a slightly different shape
Namely my bane has become
The intermittent care and
Consideration of an old man
Himself severely afflicted
As evidenced by many clearly
Cognizable symptoms
Of the very same curse

No comments:

Post a Comment