The Last Repast: My Verse (I Hardly Dare Call It Poetry)

 

THE LAST REPAST

 

I held fast

To the mast

And I leapt

From the hill

Where the kill

Had been made.

But the raid

Found the corpse

Of the horse

That I smote.

Then the boat

Sailed in,

And I saw her grin.

Said she,

"You see

How the crime

Done in time

Saved your soul

From the foal

That sought your life.

But strife

Grows rife.

So grab your bow,

Let's go!"

But I wept

Ere I slept

For the deed

That I did

To the steed

Whose dire need

Had decreed

That the cost

Wasn't lost

And whose cast

Was the last.

Hold fast!

 

--Arena, 1981

Well! This was really only a sort of experiment, to start the ball rolling and see where it went. The title, of course, recalls The Last Supper. Why? Well, it rhymes. The verse form is based on two sources, the poem "Hold Fast!" in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast and the customer McGough in Monty Python who was 'afraid he'd caught poetry.' The illustration is from Faithful John by the Brothers Grimm, drawn by Fritz Kredel. If you can find any meaning in the words, I wish you'd let me know.