POETRY
Safety popes
by Daniel Wright
We had no other commonality,
Safety Popes, chosen to die quickly.
Our only virtue was mortality.
A great man died, and some normality
was needed. We were pale and sickly.
We had no other commonality.
We weren't weighed down by personality
or stately looks. (Even then our flesh was pickly.)
Our only virtue was mortality.
One loved art, one loved brutality,
most loved little, for our blood limped thickly.
We had no other commonality.
To history, all we have is ordinality:
mere numbers, even those remembered fickly.
Our only virtue was mortality.
Bedfellows with the cold reality
of death, we were bed-warmers strictly.
We had no other commonality.
Our only virtue was mortality.