Getting Away with It
Socrates said, “Alcibiades is unhappy because everywhere Alcibiades goes, Alcibiades takes himself with him.”
If you were in a rented room with Paul
On Howland Street, you too would want to spend
Your time away from him, away from all
That drunkenness and moaning. You would wend
Your way as often as you could to read
Away your hours and to write away
His gripes. What see-through useless good to speed
Away from France and women if each day
Was filled with relocated whining stench?
They’d come to get away and leave behind
The troubles that had come from being French
Among the French, but Paul was still confined
To being Paul, while Rimbaud found escape,
Subjecting life to his transforming rape.