To Apollo

I cannot bear the darkness, nor the light.
I say that you will be the end of me.
You whip me all the day and all the night.

You are a tyrant. I will quit you quite.
Because, my lord, you steal my liberty,
I cannot bear the darkness, nor the light.

Why, liege, do you require betimes, for spite,
an ode to nothing? I am never free:
You whip me all the day and all the night.

And I have thought of running. And I might.
What of the sun, and moon, and poetry?
I cannot bear the darkness, nor the light.

Yes, I will turn my tail. It is not right
that you should hound me so unstintingly.
You whip me all the day and all the night.

I'll hide under a stone. I will not write.
Let others gather of the laurel tree.
I cannot bear the darkness, nor the light.
You whip me all the day and all the night.


1987 (One of my first vils, if not the first.)