Four Poems

Of Scaurus, a Rich Man and Covetous
(after Tito Strozzi)

They should rename this rotten little town
'Scaurusville', so much of it you own,

Scaurus. You've all there is to have -
Mistress Moneybags your pale, leather-booted love -

Yet hook and crook for more, with a hunger
Worthy of hell's most accomplished beggar,

Slug-bellied! Yet, take a total nobody
Like Fabricius, if you can: it is he

Who is the richer man, delving in his field
Of hard labour where profit will not yield

To plump, powdered hands; for you do not own
Him, Scaurus, though you run this rotten town.



Between Ourselves

Your eyes are like a horse's eyes, my love,
...