Cicero's Father Eulogizes
Behold a tattered toga
Ripped asunder by this display of
Bald treachery: Your lifeless
Head and hand tacked unceremoniously
(A wordless bulletin!)
To the site of your silver-tongued triumphs.
My liver is a Pompeiic eruption of
Paternal devastation.
I suffered you once proudly past me, my son.
It was a painful passing of the torch.
You always had the brilliant last word,
The perfect argument.
I could never contest.
Your famous fiery rhetoric is but
A fading whisper,
A muffled sob, a cooling ember.
As am I.
The words have flown with you and
Escape me.
There is nothing more to say.
Posts
10 comments:
And don't fortget to wear sunscreen.
Your forgot that part!
The liver part is kinda gross.
8-}
I don't get it. (Hey morons, at least I got the guts to admit it.)
In the ancient world, the "liver" was basically the equivalent of the "heart." Today we speak of the seat of life, emotions, and feeling as centered in the heart. The classical Romans and Greeks thought of the liver in this way. So, I just thought that if Cicero's father really were to speak from the "heart," the organ he would have reference would have been the "liver." But it does make for a kind of shocking imagery, doesn't it? A volcanic, explosive liver!
Oh, and d-bb, don't worry about not getting it. I don't get it either. Just words on a page.
"I don't get it either. Just words on a page. ~ Huck
Sometimes the effort to understand accomplishes more than understanding itself.
Sounds rather cliché, doesn’t it?
And see, I thought this was a message to the graduating class of 2009! And an awesome one at that!
Well, Eric - Ahhh! Now your previous comment makes more sense to me. I should have guessed. I wrote it some while ago, but not specifically as a graduation commentary. More as a kind of reverse child/parent intellectual rite of passage commentary. However, it does work extremely well as a Commencement poem. See! I learned something new about my own poem!
Don_cos said...
"Sometimes the effort to understand accomplishes more than understanding itself."
Hey Don, sometimes to understand one's lack of effort accomplishes even less than understanding itself.
Also, bite me.
Hey, d-bb, let's play nice with my guests. Some of my readers won't understand your unique style like I do.
D-BB said...
“Also, bite me.”
Even if I were that type of guy, you wouldn’t survive.
Huck said...
“Hey, d-bb, let's play nice with my guests. Some of my readers won't understand your unique style like I do.”
Don’t worry Huck, I have lurked around here long enough to have been exposed to D-BB’s “style.” And after a 28 year military career, It is unlikely that D-BB will manage to shock me.
Post a Comment