Sonnet 431

Long having labored in an abstruse art,

One that did not ever fully feed my soul;

Still as a lordly minion did my part

And in sound measure surely played my role.

I mentored to the lame, the sick, the blind

And with keen blade I fought their dragons well;

Though everyday I did assuage their pain,

Of what lay vanquished, I could seldom tell.

While oft my passage lay in praise replete

I was still haunted by my failings there;

Of demons vile that I could not defeat

And of cruel carnage that did mete despair.

The path we choose is rare of reasoned rhyme:

Perhaps I will forgive myself in time.

Loubert S Suddaby poems