Copped Diem

With the fleeting speed of youth,
I ran down my dreams, lofty and uncouth.
I seized the day and held it tight,
when I could and how I might.
I seized it with pen, with pick and with paint,
but also with cruelty, with gore and with taint;
with love and with loyalty, charity free,
but also with absinthe, acid and E.
I was the merry grasshopper,
not one of the frugal ants.
I drank of the leggiest years,
and feasted on greenest of plants.
drank all the dregs,
then devoured the roots.
I beat on the Bacchus drum,
and danced to harpies’ flutes.
An elegant barbarian,
I plundered most tastefully.
This futuristic antiquarian,
was creative in choice of depravity.
This Pious Epicurean,
worshiped Artemis lustfully.
If unfaithful in love,
I took vice most faithfully.
I painted Bohemian landscapes most lush,
I sung with a pen, and rhymed with a brush.
Never much of an employee,
Still well I employed my time;
attending every art show,
even those without wine;
making every Bardic lecture,
then mixing his words with mine;
chatting with museum proctors,
browsing through forgotten times.
I built my mind a mansion,
but kept my body free.
I chose decor of scansion,
but shied not from bawdry.
While I was a flower, blooming with youth,
I opened my petals to show you the truth.
And if I’m now dry and withered,
looking back on a life-misspent,
Don’t mourn for this famous liver,
but bring flutes, Zinfandel and refreshment,
for to reject the present is to insult the giver,
and this honest villain will never repent.