9448. COME FORTH

COME FORTH

Come forth from the King of the Past the

man said  -  he nodded as he talked. I'd

seen others who spoke like that, and never

liked it at all. Pedantic nitwits and the

know-it-all sorts. Up front of the room,

everyone was watching him, but no one

cared. If Lucifer had a pale brother,

it could have been him.

-

So I listened as I boned up on his math.

Not the kind of thing I liked to do; the watching

of his dumb chalk-dust fly, noticing his nerves

of steel, the pointed attitude he kept towards

all things 'beneath' him. I was willing to

bet he'd not had sex until he was 26.

-

That's the sort of white trash we get left with

now  - the right and most proper ones, who

call it all down. Ring around the rosy, a

pocketful of posies; ashes, ashes, we

all wear a frown.