- meditation on a theme by John Ashbery -
What was it but the “extra” in extravagance –
the waste with which it had paid its pageants?
The sentiment, it seems, was ever to spare it.
Or was it something in the manner of a fault –
a flaw in the dome, a crack in the vault?
Didn’t we put forth, ‘twould be best to repair it?
Others suggested it was like an exemption
that, if taken, would grant us redemption –
either that or worse if we failed to declare it.
Was it something of Truth or of an older troth?
Perhaps it might be likened to an oath.
Was it up to the bold or the meek to swear it?
Ah, but history was nothing if not a life,
appareling strife on collective strife –
a life to the given life. Wear it, now. Wear it.
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