Other Odysseys

For Charles Sheen.

*+_ Other Odysseys _+*
Your colours brashly peacock
Arrogance of thought
Tied to mast by fools
Ears un-stopped with wax
Sweet dementia of the chorus
Forever playing upon your soul
How did it feel once you were
Safely ensconced with Penelope
Did you still hear those sirens singing
Lying in your wedding bed
Those deceitful alluring tunes
Still trapped inside your head
Is this the chorus of fame
A warning analogy to us all
Beware the beauty you hear
Seduction of the soul
All pleasures are not joyous
And oft more expensively bought
Than price at which their sold
To be famous for an instant
Or five years or even ten
Then to live with fame collared
Around your life without escape
All the mistakes you ever made pursue you
The part you play is set
This siren has charmed you well
You never feel a thing
Grow into a beautiful grotesque
Everything you ever want you get
Till suffer from over-indulgence
You drown and die ignominiously
In sea of fame in which you sail
As did all those other sailors
Who fame enthralled and made rocks forget.