The Sum of Life
Love “has no great influence upon the sum of life” ~ Samuel Johnson
He tots up all the numbers, money, words
He listed in that dictionary, wrote
In books and articles, and all the turds
He shat from all that food that made him bloat
Up underneath his waistcoat, and he gets
The total meaning of his life. He’s blind,
This wondrous wise man. He knows no regrets
About a fetching shoulder, doesn’t mind
The loss of one blue pair of eyes. They add
No reckoning to existence and his heart
Is full instead with wit and books. This sad
And ugly thick-jowled giant knew that “start”
Had more definitions than “beginning.”
He failed to understand the heart spinning.