Beauty or the Beast II
You’ll have to labor, never shirk,
before Erato yields a crumb;
then maybe fitting words will come
to crack the craft of Petrarch’s work.
Unlock, fling open wide the gates,
and let mind’s offspring scamper out,
evade dread metaphoric drought,
achieve best bonding with their mates.
Imagine, you may see emerge
a masterpiece to grace the page,
the best the world has ever seen!
It could, of course, turn out a dirge,
the worst disaster of the age.
So…try it; you’ll see what I mean.
—Emery Campbell, Lawrenceville, GA
