How Sweet a Name First Sounds...

'Feeling Bardish this morning'

How sweet a name first sounds, before
it's swallowed: begins the journey

down to mix amidst the gut's toxic juices.

How sweet to be the first to hear
a name give voice to all my needs,
before it's drowned in the cynic's vat.

How sweet, how sweet, sadly my ears

not sweet enough to keep my thoughts

from darker aims: my bow went taunt.

How hard is it to hear the cry
of a love run through, to know I

am the one who set in flight that

tragedy? For want of empathy,
my need to own, what callous heart

sent forth a mis-quiverd arrow;

did doom the name so sweet to lie
forever more, no more ever

from lips burnished blue, regret full?

What name so sweet, my heart wouldn't

yield to the hunter's nature?

Your heart, sadly, so it would seem.

Ken e Bujold

© 2022

Reviews

[W. Barrett Munn]

I didn’t see your comment at first but thought “this is so shakespesrean” during the read. So modernized though and compelling-I found my own regrets inside your stanzas. It was great but left me feeling wounded.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

glad you enjoyed. as I was feeling Bardish i penned it so, but the genesis was the opening line of John Asberry's Myrtle