Aphelion Issue 300, Volume 28
November 2024--
 
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King Lear By Ganges, The Bard Of Bladbut

by John Grey


King Lear on Planet Alderon is three hundred years old.
He has fifty five treacherous daughters
and seventeen kind and loving ones.
The fool that never leaves his fifteen sides
boasts three mouths.
His motes of unexpected wisdom come out as triptychs.

This King Lear is blind in seventeen of his eyes
and losing the sight in eight others.
The six good ones see only ingratitude.

His Duke of Burgundy is Walla The Schimbel.
His Earl of Kent, the Gentle Giant of Prog.
He wanders about in the wilderness
shrieking, "Howl, howl, howl, howl!
Oh you are men of stone."
Many of them are.


© 2008 John Grey

John Grey's latest book is “What Else Is There” from Main Street Rag. He has been published recently in Agni, Worcester Review, South Carolina Review and The Pedestal.

Find more by John Grey in the Author Index.

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