Uselysses
Daniel Lord Foster


It little profits that an idle fool,
With all the world’s virtue and vice to learn,
Should waste away in secondary school
And linger ‘til the worse does take its turn.
For little I have seen and less I’ve known,
Playing neither hero nor villain’s part;
Never have God’s graces or wrath been shown
To me, nor have I gone with hungry heart.
But I know the texts of a thousand arts
Begin and end with one sacrosanct word.
And, echoing from all bloody ramparts,
Its melodious, doomsday tolls are heard.
So I reach for where the western stars shine
With but that word, “love”, and fair Madeline.