AT THE END

(These postings, of course, mostly add up to an autobiography. It's a bit surprising, I admit, t find out how big a role a variety of things including demons, saints, Baba Yaga. kings who can fly and ancient parliaments seem to have played. I should have paid closer attention.)

Though rain was expected the Addled Parliament
Had gone out lightly clad and came back
Feverish and delusional. The Useless Parliament
Ran off for a doctor but got hopelessly lost.
The Merciless Parliament and the Blessed Parliament
Were dancing and could not be disturbed.
The Good, the Bad, the Long, the Short, the Black,
And the Parliaments of Dunces and of Birds all refused
To reconstitute themselves. Only the Parliament of Bats
And the Mad Parliament were there at the end.
Later, the Rump came into the death chamber
To weep and steal one of the pennies the Mad
Had left upon the Addled's eyes.