Villanelle: "As If A King"

When death comes for me, none will break their stride
To mourn me, save for few, and those not long
It will not be as if a King had died.

I must confess the thought it wounds my pride
(My little pride, of lion cubs far from strong)
When death comes for me, none will break their stride.

My children will perhaps feel a dark tide
But that, quick, fleeting sense of something wrong
It will not be as if a King had died.

For all that is, is selfish, deep inside
A death's forgotten, fleeting as a song
When death comes for me, none will break their stride.

Oh I could wish for tears that never dried
But what's the use, for pain, but to prolong
it, will not be as if a King had died.

I should be glad that grief from them has shied
Like nightmare bawked by beating of a gong
When death comes for me, none will break their stride
It will not be as if a King had died.


Simon BJ