Etched Joys, Wretched Joys

           Etched Joys, Wretched Joys

“Rugby is full of dreary ghosts of dead hopes and remembered joys” ~ Rupert Brooke

Lascelles was more than just another love

For Rupert. Charles was Rupert’s first love, more

Like God’s own “Fiat lux” while high above

The chaos of the loveless cosmos.  Sore

Were all his later loves except the one

With Taatamata, maybe.  Love for Charles was prime,

As in a template Christ spoke out.  A nun

Could cuddle with it happily.  The grime

Of other passions did not fit in with

That paradigm of innocence untouched.

Lascelles lined up in Rupert’s holy myth

As in a virgin petal left unsmutched.

  Sore also this one came to be, more pain

    Like unrequited passion lacking stain.

Phillip Whidden