The Making of an Artist

After the War, an unnamed Oxford don,

a soldier then, seduced a Roman boy

in a brief flurry of paedophilic joy,

but woke one day to find his minion gone.

The don, shamed by his momentary rage,

consoled himself with academic fame,

and publishing his monograph, became

the foremost lepidopterist of his age.

Years later, at a gathering in France,

the don spotted a face he surely knew

and blurted:  "Franco, darling!  Is it you?"

The great director looked at him askance:

"I'm sorry, but your name has slipped my mind.

There were so many, and they were all so kind."

Timothy Murphy

From Very Far North, The Waywiser Press, London,
England, © 2002.  Reprinted by permission of the author.