Stranger and Not Stranger
“Youth is stranger than fiction.” ~ Rupert Brooke
The two re-met two nights. Young Brooke was known
To be opposed to what they were about
To do. The other had been nursing overblown
Emotions for the poet, years. A stout
Conviction might be overridden by
These feelings. They discussed it. Denham said
That it was wrong. They, then, saw eye to eye
So nothing changed. Right? Rupert put his head
On Denham’s knees and things moved on from there.
They went upstairs to Denham’s bed and lay
On it, just one beneath the sheet, but blare
Of sex intruded. Fingers went astray.
At last the thing that they agreed was wrong
Surmounted. Denham took the poet’s prong.
~ Phillip Whidden