Some Hope
I am a clown performing slapstick at a funeral,
Cassandra whispering to Narcissus,
an ant on the lawn at a posh garden party
mooning policemen with pepper sprays,
I am a blunt pencil snarling death-threats at the deaf
(while hoping for hearing aids),
an anxious wife denying a drunk yet another drink,
I am inside an institute for the criminally insane
teaching dressage to donkeys,
I am phobos, galimatias, a magnum mysterium,
when I write urgent poetry about the climate crisis.
After a long career as a professor of Classics Paul Murgatroyd retired 8 years ago and took up creative writing. So far he has had published/accepted for publication 15 poems in English, 76 Latin poems, 2 prose poems and 59 short stories.