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I sing a song of fleeting joy

June 1, 2014
By OzymandiasAengus PLATINUM, Bronx, New York
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OzymandiasAengus PLATINUM, Bronx, New York
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I sing a song of fleeting joy
Of treadles, backpacks, girl and boy
a-marching on their way to Troy.
And as the hills their feet did cloy
The goddesses wove a curious toy
And placed it there upon the clay.
At last the children met the fray
Lit by sun of St. Agatha’s Day,
At half past noon, when rabbits play.
As children do the gods annoy
They failed to choose the chosen toy
And thus the empire did destroy,
All for the sake of the girl and the boy.
A little learning is a dangerous thing.

© Jacqueline T., Cambridge, Canada

The author's comments:
Not technically a sonnet, but close enough that I think it merits the sonnet categorization.
This poem is actually a quell, a poetic form invented by Gregory Maguire in his book "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." A quell consists of 13 short rhyming lines, followed by an unrhymed apothegm.
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