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Thread: Do Not Use My Name

  1. #1
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    Do Not Use My Name

    A society man of stature
    and historical pedigree
    fathered an illegitimate son
    and that son of his
    was me.
    He raised me as a 'patron',
    though what we were was known.
    Sponsored my years at boarding school,
    bankrolled my childhood home.
    To ends of fortune and esteem
    I had been groomed to stake my claim
    but all throughout my formative years
    reminded, all the same...
    ''Do not use my name, my boy -
    you cannot use my name.
    The world is so -
    and you must know -
    you cannot use my name.
    Not in means of business,
    even if your own,
    not ever once in boastful pride
    in the world beyond your home.
    You are mine,
    you are of me,
    but consider
    society
    and complications of estate,
    lineage and
    my sole heir's fate.
    A line continues, as it must -
    but with your own,
    all is not lost...
    your Mother's surname you must use
    but rest assured I'll do my dues
    and see -
    I'll see -
    that you shan't fail,
    my second son
    you will prevail.''

    Within me grew
    a hardened heart,
    though I knew
    to play my part -
    and true to his word
    did I rise,
    with my own name
    and with his ties...
    To step into our Father's shoes,
    in time, my brother's duty called -
    to scorn me when our paths should cross,
    in the city's gilded halls...
    and so I wait now for the day
    plotting, driven near insane,
    that I should live solely to see
    the ruin of that family name.
    To smite it from all of the earth,
    convince history to turn its back,
    on all they were and now shall be
    when my conspirators attack.
    I have no sword, nor pistol
    but sheer will
    and greater sums
    to do just as much a damage
    as men who wielded either one.
    I pay double agents
    to rot their empire from inside;
    deals to make, disclose
    and break
    until I'm satisfied...
    in Father's debt
    and ruin
    vindicated I will be.
    The only name
    he'll wish to claim
    in time, we shall now see.

    Copyright Yafeu-Khamisi Rodway-Brown

  2. #2
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    "Revenge is a dish best served cold"... came to my mind. A powerful vignette.

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  3. #3
    confidentially pleased cacian's Avatar
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    London
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    wow sad and powerful piece.
    very well written hope you find peace within yourself.
    best to let it go as I have myself.
    it may never try
    but when it does it sigh
    it is just that
    good
    it fly

  4. #4
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    115
    You are hands down one of my favorite writers YRKB. I will always love well-written rhythm and your poems have it all- moral context, ease of understanding, emotion, and strong conclusions. I just love them. This one reminds me of an Anne Rice novel, "The Feast of All Saints", I read awhile back as a kid. It follows the story of the hidden world between white land owners and the mixed families they created after the freeing of slaves. The aristocrat spends more time with his mistress than at home and funds his illegitimate sons education, but under the conditions they will have no legitimacy to his name and wealth. It was heartbreaking.

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