Why are you looking at me in wonder
If I may make so bold as to presume
The import of your facial expression
You have demonstrated your rugged poise in word and deed
As I have made similar exhibition
Of my stumbles in the regions of sanctity
Like you I am outgoing and gregarious
But you hold success high and believe in it

A few leaves here and there are starting to change
Promising relief from torrid summer
Halcyon fowl of predator and prey solstice or equinox
Dread of warm days’ never ceasing of weak equivalencies
The annual anxiety and excitement of new school days
The feeble morbid hope that nature
Would exceed her remit of exterior metamorphosis
And plunge the shaping implement daggerlike into the inner being

You say you’ve done your best to rearrange the neural pathways
But you might have tried harder
And anyway the skills have declined near to desuetude
Liberated by and from the roll of dynastic mandate
Washed in the scalding blood of sacrifice
Furious anger and precipitous withdrawal
So the world never gave you the endorsement you wanted
But you could have played your part with greater aplomb