Maz, I couldn't possibly urge death to take a living poet, since everyone is precious to someone. I felt bad enough implying that I could spare the poet who had died of a stroke, compared to my friend.
Julie, thanks for pointing out patterns in the consonants that I was not fully conscious of as I was writing the poem. That participial phrase would work better if I could make it "After hearing" or "Having heard," but I don't think I can fit either into the line.
Marion, I am so glad to have someone notice that it is a Shakespearean sonnet. That was a little in joke that I wasn't sure readers would catch.
Maggie, it is worthwhile to be reminded that one person's metaphor can be another's painful reality. I had actually borrowed the word "legless" from a poem by Michael Donaghy, where it was an entertaining piece of British slang meaning "drunk." I thought it would work equally well to mean "unable to stand." I was thinking as I wrote it of a moment in Homer's Odyssey in which Penelope hears that the suitors plan to murder her son; she is so stunned that she can't even make it to the nearest chair, but sits right down on the floor. I am not sure what you think is humorous in the poem, since I see it as quite a serious subject. Maybe the tone sounds more flippant to you than I intended.
Thanks to everyone for their responses and to Rhina for giving it such a sympathetic reading.
Susan
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