Oscar in Stone
Perhaps we should set
our admirations aside,
for there must be a reason
there is no statue of Oscar Wilde,
not even in London
outside of Reading Gael;
one thing they won’t abide, I guess,
and the author of Lady Windermere
has somehow been banned
from public space. Is this explicit
lack a matter of mere disinterest,
or an official act of British shame?
O, poor Wilde.
Here rare is the square
that’s not bedecked
by some figure of renown,
some hero’s face in marble or stone.
Sometimes a name
is like a corkscrew turning in a wound,
or like the obligatory ceremonial sword
for the commission of sepulko .
For it to work
it must be twisted inside.