Bill

There once was a man who was idle and tame

His greatest ambition was to solve a fool’s game

He broke his back twice and his heart thrice

He didn’t expect that his subjects would entice

There once was a child who was brave and wild

But something happened that made him defiled

He woke up one day and saw he’d grown old

And so he bought a sign for his soul that said “Sold”

I met the poor man on the last day of his life

He cried, the daring child never even got a wife

Yet one thing could still redeem his great mistakes

To tell his story, as his past, finally, awakes

The solemn fellow slowly began his great tale

Which I shall now attempt to repeat without fail

A story that towers so high like the one in Babel

But which now is reduced to the wreckage of fable

The story begins with a knighted boy named Bill

Who never could quite manage to stay still

Every day he travelled to lands far and wide

To return everyday to dinner like the tide

Some days Bill would journey to the Castle of Teen,

A place only the bravest child could be seen

For the mighty King Jim sat on his throne proud

And all that entered, could only if he allowed

The king’s prized possession was the Elixir of Joy

He professed it to be his own private toy

He drank until he could no longer stand

And started to hit the air with his hand

The brave Sir Bill once stole the Elixir one night

And found himself in a whirlwind of delight

Though when he awoke the next morning

He noticed the elixir’s bottle carried a warning

The Beast of Minerva was his greatest nemesis

She ruled dictatorially, the supremacist

Sucking dry, the joy of life and its energy

But she taught him the power of synergy

Sir Bill gathered his strongest allies

And exiled the Monster with their rallies

But once she was defeated and finally done

Another appeared out of Apollo’s Sun

For many a year the Knight fought the beast

Until one day he battled and was finally released

And so his great voyage at length began

Aimlessly wandering without a plan

Breaking through the tyranny of Ponos’ child

Who would attack him with paper and go wild

He seduced the Sirens with great success

And made some later his personal princess

All of which later abandoned him to his fate

He then awoke one day to see that his life was late

His Knighthood had been robbed by age

Sir Bill was now the knave of the stage

And so the old man told me his great tale

But even this did not seem to avail

His distress and fear was far too great

And so he laid back and decided to wait

“Is there no hope of any redemption?”

“No second chances against rejection?”

The broken figure simply cracked a smile

“I’ve been asking that now for a while.”

There once was a man who was weak and old

Before he died, though, I heard it told

His age that had robbed him of his youth

Had at the end of the day taught him truth

He awoke from the nightmare he was in

Arose to his life and decided to begin

Took upon himself his crown of old

Took down the sign off his soul that said “Sold”

For Sir Bill had found his second chance

In the most peculiar of romance

There once was a man who fell asleep one night

And his final thought was, “In the end I got it right.”