With apologies to WH Davies
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no notes or coins to spare?
No time to stand in B & Q,
(As if we'd better things to do):
No time to see, when shops we pass,
Where markets 'educate' the mass:
No time to see, in neon light,
Stores full of dross and tat and shite:
No time to turn at Xmart's glance,
And watch her pornographic dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Open the purse of any man?
A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time for better ware.
Robert, this is excellent. I have been quite busy and took my leisurely time in making it over this way. I was not familiar with the Davies poem and have now read it; I like your inversion of it very much. Whereas he lamented lack of time and attention for the beauty about us, your fullness care (I assume for more beautiful things) means you miss out on the sublime wonders of neon light and marketing rum amok. I hope you remain "full of care", and that the time you devote to reading and writing about Rilke continues to distract you from the pornographic neon dance around us. Technically, it is quite good, too, conserving the metric, rhyme and structure.
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