Verlaine Agonistes
“for me Rimbaud is an ever-living reality, a sun
aflame within me, a sun that will not suffer eclipse”
~ Paul Verlaine long after Arthur’s death
The Philistines bored out the strongman’s eyes
With iron-cold gouges. Verlaine lost his sight
By staring at the sun. He spread his thighs
To let that weaponized mushroom star smite
His guts, to let its prominences flare
Inside him and inside his heart and mind.
Which one was more heroic of this pair,
The one who let a whorish woman blind
Him, or the one who took a genius to
His breast, a witchcraft poet in his throat?
Which one was more triumphant, true? One slew
The temple Philistines. The other wrote.
No contest really, you might say. The blame
Fell crushingly, but one blazed love and flame.