JVD

Medievally ranked, gorgeously plumed,
They come ill-paired, ill-spaced in ragged file,
Out of step with solemn music, the smile
Of the self-conscious marking their assumed
Estate, to offer candidates themselves begowned
For honors earned — this show by laws
Sometime decreed, though whether that is cause
Enough, these seem to doubt, appearing bound.

Why not untie? What loss to learned kind
Whose true processional on any day
Is anyhow the mind’s diameter?
So they may think, who’ve traveled both to find
Great galaxies and worlds too small to weigh,
Past any sense that pageantry can stir.

But custom holds. They have experience
Of words as well as measurement, the sort
That’s going nowhere, old or new. Its port
Is knowledge that makes claim to permanence,
If any can. Watch, foolish knight, with wise
Of hemlock — cardboard and bare feet the prize!