Unchanging Changes

Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart, 1638. by Anthony van Dyck

Some Things Never Change

Aren’t they the brats, these Stuart brothers,
soon off for their jaunt on the Continent?
Jane’s cousins struck a similar pose
at their sending-off party last month.
Just before she drove them down to London
they stood, disdainful, on the spacious porch
that opens to their mother’s well-kept garden.
Jane zoomed her iPod fondly at their sneers.
No lace adorned their high-topped boots,
but in mindset and manner they’re the same.
The bent old gardener, who has trimmed the maze
on Friday afternoons for twenty years,
saw the backpacks, asked, Where you go, boys?
They call him Ho Chi Minh behind his back.
Andrew said, To Asia to look at the monkeys.
Jack snickered. They stayed three weeks.
The Stuart lads were traveling for three years,
but in this modern age of cheap flights, ADHD,
drugs and discontent, things move faster.
Jack got the clap. Andrew got swindled big-time.
When Jane asked about the best part of their trip,
they said there was no best part, Asia sucks.

______ by Janice D. Soderling
More about and by Janice at BenTarZ Books

*

”Many intelligent people lack knowledge
and many knowledgeable people lack intelligence.
If you don’t know the difference between knowledge and intelligence
you probably lack knowledge.
If you are knowledgeable and don’t know the difference
you’re probably stupid.”
Dartwill Aquila

*

The West Bank is now the Judea-Samaria area.