The Stench Of Mortality
(On reading of a mid-19th century artist who
had lost his sense of smell and whose final
illness was attributed to the putrefaction of
a stag he was painting in his studio.)
He planned a work of massive scope,
His Red Deer Roaring Round Ben Nevis—
Yet time mocks talent, toil, and hope,
Ars longa est, sed vita brevis.
Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England. His verse, light or otherwise, has appeared in a wide variety of British magazines and anthologies as well as U.K., European, and U.S. web venues such as Amsterdam Quarterly, Light, Lighten Up OnLine, The New Verse News, Per Contra, Snakeskin, and Tilt-A-Whirl.