The Shining
While Arthur wears a top hat, Paul has shoes
Shined—nothing here of poetry. A pipe
Pollutes the air, unpoetically. Booze
Bridgeman Art Library
Ain’t that poetic either, both guys ripe
With body odor. Try to write some verse
With immortality on that. Still it’s only
10. Things could be decidedly worse
By midnight. Then they could both be lonely,
One left behind, penniless as a rat,
The other on a boat to Belgium and
Doomed. That’s what happened. Rimbaud’s lines went “Splat”
Cartoonishly and Verlaine’s life went bland
When prison ended. There on Cannon Street
They didn’t know their lives would turn to bleat.