Alice Harrison
Duos
(John Lennon, Eric Morecambe, Peter Cook)
The wrong one always dies first.
The one with genius gets
the bullet, the heart attack,
or the drink gets him.
The one with talent waits
for the strokes, the disease
or the healthy happy old age.
The screwed-up singer with the ego,
the arrogance, the hint of poison in his voice
and the soul of an old rocker
leaves the sweet guy with the sweet voice
to sell-out mediocrity.
The comic with every bone a funny bone,
every gesture, every word a classic
and the distinctive, instinctive timing
leaves the old trouper
to sentimental music-hall bonhomie.
The dilettante satirist, smart-alec,
too-clever-by-half pretension mocker,
glad put-downer of fools
leaves the partner with the piano
to spurious fame and serial matrimony.
The first-named always dies first,
quits while he’s ahead,
before he begins to pall,
becomes too earnest a dud.
The right one always dies first.
Page(s) 25
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The