all the literati keep an imaginary friend

[incandescens]

Holiday approaches. WorldCon approaches. I try to remember everything that I still have to do.

Over halfway through the year now. It's gone so fast.

---

The Fall of Rome

The piers are pummelled by the waves;
In a lonely field the rain
Lashes an abandoned train;
Outlaws fill the mountain caves.

Fantastic grow the evening gowns;
Agents of the Fisc pursue
Absconding tax-defaulters through
The sewers of provincial towns.

Private rites of magic send
The temple prostitutes to sleep;
All the literati keep
An imaginary friend.

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extol the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar’s double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.

Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.

-- WH Auden

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Oh my heavens, yes. You're about to vanish into the maw of the Beast. Have fun.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Or rather, you vanish in two weeks time. Am getting confused with (our) August bank holiday.

[incandescens]

I'm fairly sure that WorldCon could be compared to the maw of any Beast of choice, the bigger the better. :)