Alas, Poor Ernest


ALAS, POOR ERNEST



He reformed,

so said his last wife,

Milton's Paradise,

hammered into Eliot's tradition

his rich anxiety, his guilt

regarding the whiteness of supremacy.



So enlightened, in 1961,

or perhaps aggrieved

by insatiable arrogance,

he penetrated his mouth

with a shotgun,

pulled the trigger.





Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            September 23, 2019

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