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Epitaph

Author: 
Carl Rakosi

by his own hand:

                           'A minor poet

not conspicuously dishonest'

 

by Rakosi:

                 'A crafty poet 

not conspicuously minor'

 

into whose eyes

                          no man entered.

His smile:

               a boy of six.

But what's

                the fox

lurking in

              that look of wonder?

 

Antipodes slightly mad 

have flushed this face: 

the hardy peasant.

 

From The Poetry Review 3&4 (1976/77).

Reproduced with the permission of Marilyn Kane, Literary Executor for the Estate of Callman Rawley, a.k.a. Carl Rakosi.