A celebrity had announced his own incipient dementia
He was famous for achievements neither insubstantial
Nor likely to alter the course of history
I made light of the emergent fact
Thereby earning the disapproval of all around me

If I had been a character in a play
If I had been a beautifully contrived concoction
Polished optimized revised and corrected
I might have extemporized some slashing riposte
To cast the philistines howling down to bottomless perdition

Being actual I voiced my objection silently
That the world suddenly notices greatness
After the great have fallen
But it was the fact of my having been denounced
And not content of the denunciation to which I objected

And so error proliferates
Why should I have derided so gratuitously
A harmless and overthrown clown
And why resent so furiously
The public registry of my error

And why let it be asked
Lacerate myself so mercilessly now
For acting according to how I am
Unless it be that I reserve for myself alone
The power to deride resent lacerate and denounce

For mine is the power the fury and the mercilessness
And let it be stated
Mine the deception
Both of the silent riposte and the secret punishment
Mine the shame

I was ashamed of my insensitivity
And of my sensitivity
And though I had not chosen to be sensitive or insensitive
Still I deplore
Those qualities of my framing

So many years to reform my character
So many victories and even more defeats
So many opportunities to change my ways
And yet they change if at all
For the worse

Each domino larger than the one before
Each iteration a subtle variant
No image
No palliative words
No eternal return of the same