So What?
“a Rugby athlete”
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” ~ Oscar Wilde
If we reduce the man to what he was
On Rugby playing fields, back when a lad
Who might have dreamed of poetry while fuzz
Was growing first upon his legs, a scad
Of hairs beneath his arms, that misses out
Complexities that make a poet. He
Knew boysome love then. Later he would pout
Out loud when women didn’t love him, see
His wonders—swooning down to his desires.
He sweated over sports, and girls, and boys.
So what? These details should be piled on pyres
And burned like shameful lovers letters’ noise.
What matters is the line, the line that stabs
Aortas, not these little gossip scabs.
~ Phillip Whidden