Empty Charms Replaced His Stunning Charm — Two Sutured Sonnets
The media in ignorance gets in
The way of people’s understanding of
The truth. They put a glossy glamor spin
On heroes and then shy away from love
That falls outside the types that Christians would
Approve of. Once the bug-bit Rupert Brooke
Was dead, the papers stuck to what was good
For women’s sentiment. An inglenook
In which he shared his body with a guy
Or tropic love resulting in womb
Filled, mixed race-wise, would surely be awry.
No hint of this would decorate his tomb.
An airbrush would have been applied to save
His beauty in reports about his grave.
The readers would not know about his friends’
Determination to wrap round his loss the view
That somehow poetry could make amends
For his pale septic death. His eyes of blue
Were like the epic sea around the isle
Where he was buried, Skyros. Just from there
Achilles left for Troy, his cross-dressed guile
Defeated. Though this didn’t really square
With heroism, Rupert’s friends were sad
Enough to grasp this mythic straw to bend
His death to something noble. They were glad
To make this link to glorify their friend.
Besides, the death of Theseus was here.
They clutched at details from the epic sphere.
~ Phillip Whidden