Compared

Compared 

john clare 

No words were spared

in the tearing down

around us of the years

of line upon line 

double spaced in the

school girl cursive

saved for special notes 

for mothers birthdays 

and the aunts far away

who yet doted upon the

cursive notes 

genteel ladies they were

never would they tear

around them the words

 savoring them

tucking them lovingly 

between the testaments

or the psalms

reading them time and again

remembering the lines

holding them in the Kings 

Word for safe keeping 

compared to him

I could never measure

and it was with some

Aunt like pleasure the

cursive lines scattered to

the winds

to be swept at day's end

For safekeeping

in some far off 

trash bin.