The Rotten

Analysis read—and wronged—and pulled Lulled into our idealistic mess Words no longer ours but hung distress Farced in carnality—they are ruled Soundness remains what we will believe And all else is but tethered nonsense Clinched tightly in unfriendly absence Overcome in overwrought relief The judges judge on behalf of tongue When ears and eyes close achingly tight And perhaps in woe we find them right For witches sought and bound must be hung! Lower than the softened dirt that cures Where worms in halves blindly come to eat The higher crush with tormented feat And the suns scorch what is left of hers Answers never tried—and cured to hide They look to superior sources The rotten are the strongest forces Ripened and toughened with bequeathed pride -Iambic Tetrameter Contest: Metrical verse Sponsor: Giorgio Veneto Laura Breidenthal