Dueling Banjos

“I had a cruel thought today and didn’t say it--guilt
assuaged for the scantest half hour.” “The icy
casualness of the very rich and the very talented,
moving like sound through steel, pierces my spleen.”
“Steed threatens steed, how else to talk
of the too-luxurious razor used before breakfast,

the piano note’s decay?” “The insane audiophile’s breakfast
goes untouched, orange juice refracting sunlight and guilt,
the passive-agressive archivist refusing to talk.”
“Is it the nature of ice to be icy,
or can one wish for a less splenetic spleen?”
“You’ll want to make sure your surgeon is talented.”

“The torment of simply being too talented
for words, facing once more the specious breakfast
of champions, provoked an attack of spleen
in the manic-depressive actress--not prone to guilt
or to allowing cracks in her uncannily icy
demeanour.” “At a thousand dollars an hour talk

is not cheap.” “Refusing to talk--
except to those markedly less talented--
he made of summer’s ascendency an occasion no less icy
than some belated invitation to breakfast
with a paranoid barber.” “There is no guilt
like that of masking expressions of spleen

behind a silk screen depicting scenes from 'Spleen
de Paris.'” “You may think that you can talk
to the narcissistic professor, but what you see as guilt
is but a refusal to recognize rivals talented
at golf, macramé, and making breakfast.”
“I tried her and found her icy.”

“But what point is there in drowning in currents more icy
than glass, when spilt milk can be put down to spleen?”
“What good is such fatuousness at the breakfast
table?” “You only notice his schizophrenia when you talk
to him, otherwise he’s simply untalented
and given to long-winded explanations of Medea’s guilt.”

“I am fond of guilt but find shame much too icy.”
“With a few exceptions, only the talented suffer from spleen.”
“But that’s not something you can talk about at breakfast.”


I have little memory of writing this sestina, except for the phrase "I had a cruel thought today and didn't say it. I found it just now on my hard disk while looking for something else.