“I Shall Surround You”

  “I Shall Surround You”

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            Mirabeau, Wikipedia

“I shall surround you with a vicious ring
The likes of which you’ve never seen,” his friend,
Mirabeau, yelled at Talleyrand.  The sting
Was bent and turned around, though, in the end.
The bishop asked, “Am I to understand
That M. de Mirabeau proposes to
Embrace me?”  They were often very grand
(Grandiloquent on Mirabeau’s part who
Was Pentecostal with his preachment tongue)
In pointed attack, each on the other.
The loud one reasoned rudely with his lung,
The cooler bishop, calm with his brother.
  They’re proof that two friends do not need to be
    Ideally perfect in their amity.