Sunday, January 8, 2012

Ozymandias

This is in response to the prompt #99 from Tess at Magpie Tales.

Apologies to Shelley.








image: Friedlander

Ozymandias


You are
Ozymandias
Standing legs apart
Hands on your hips
Off with their heads
On your lips
If they but disobey
And yet you
Are moved
By the way
Her skirt
Twirls about her
And her voice
Drowns the
Desert noise
The ululations
Of a dying nation.
I tell you
King of kings
These things are
Like the dust –
Your legs
Will crumble
Beneath your lust
And kingdoms all 
Will tremble
At your fall.

16 comments:

  1. Love your take on Ozymandias, and didn't even pick up the rhyme consciously until I find myself singing along to this one. Would make an excellent minor-key-lady-with-a-guitar song. Now we see what toppled him in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a great read. Love the rhythm as I read aloud and the message so clear.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Social commentary, brief and revealing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wonderful, the rhyming is fabulously done.

    I am a sucker for Yul.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Interesting piece! I like the lines " Off with their heads/ On your lips/ If they but disobey/ And yet you/ Are moved/ By the way/ Her skirt/Twirls about her/ And her voice/ Drowns the/ Desert noise"

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely adaption of The King and I. Deborah could sing this. Good job Karen.

    ReplyDelete
  7. lust certainly has its way of taking down men in power...that is for sure...very nice...

    ReplyDelete
  8. come to think of it, that would have been a great role for him. he was king of Siam, and King of Egypt, so yeah, he was king of kings

    days of cohan

    ReplyDelete
  9. When I lived near Raleigh I used to volunteer for Raleigh Little Theatre. I did follow spots & I remember trying to keep up with Anna as she danced around the stage in her giant dress...

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the line about the twirling skirt and then the admonishment at the end. I clicked on the "Karen" link at Poets United and was delighted to land here, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  11. So much truth in this Karen.....an amazing poem!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Everyone: Thank you for reading and taking your time to comment. I appreciate that some of you mentioned the social commentary and others the Yul Brenner connection. Especially, I hope (if you weren't familiar with it)that you went to Shelley's Ozymandias, an incredibly telling social commentary. Some things never change.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hello.
    Enjoyed reading this.
    Vivid imagery which does indeed bring to mind The King And I.
    Nicely done!
    Thanks for sharing.

    Take Me Under Your Special Wings

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh that swirling dress...one of my favorite movie scenes ever...nice write Karen...

    ReplyDelete