Four Lives
My sandals followed Caesar for daily bread.
Arrhythmic, diffident, I dragged my life.
We passed a garden and heard your song ascend.
My thirsting throat and voice thence longed for flight.
One year the rats in London bred the Plague,
So acting troupes would tour the countryside.
I rested rasp and file to live through plays,
Where you, fair costumer, dressed hearts and minds.
When Mister Maxwell's Laws first spanned our world,
I drained my funds for coils and polished brass,
Then wrestled hunger, probing aether's core,
As smells from your cafe would tease and pass.
I pause and muse on centuries alone.
We share bad schnapps, and I am finally home.