Thursday, June 11, 2020

Young Greeks at a Cockfight (Jean-Leon Gerome), Sonnet #515
















And so it starts with this, two youths
Setting birds against each other.
One is black, the other red.
(There is never one, but two truths.)
The rest of us do not bother
Until it’s too late — both are dead.
We might have tried to stopped the fight,
Though boy and girl proclaim the right
To this innocent violence.
“That we too are harmed is nonsense,”
They cry. “The world can spare a cock
Or two. It’s not that we would mock
The dead. Instead, we celebrate
Our right to determine their fate.”

My book of the first 200 of these sonnets is now available for purchase. Click here: