The fool ( A bad sestina)
by cricketjeff on May 28, 2008. © Jeff Green, All rights reserved
I teased and hurt a friend I am a fool
I never mean to hurt a single soul
Apologies are hard and I don’t know
If I can say enough to put things right
I’ve lost a perfect friend in just one line
There is no way a thing can be unsaid
I wish I had not said the thing I said
For now I look and feel a perfect fool
A silly joke that occupied one line
Has hurt a friend and hit out at her soul
I want to find a way to put things right
Is there such a trick, I do not know
Who is the firmest friend that you can know?
I’m sorry for the foolish thing I’ve said
There isn’t any way to put it right
And so I will just look a stupid fool
So sorry that I hurt her to the soul
By half a dozen words in just one line
I feel I am a fish trapped by a line
I took a bite at bait I did not know
I’m soon to be a dish like Dover sole
All for something silly that was said
Does anybody know a bigger fool
Or know a way that I can set things right
I really need to set my error right
To try to take back just one teasing line
I’d still appear as quite the biggest fool
Of all the fools that I have come to know
Because of silly things that I have said
I feel that I’ve been trampled ‘neath a sole
I wonder how to fix a wounded soul
Is there a way that I could put things right
To show there’s no intent in what I said
That it was just a very silly line
I wonder if she’ll always tell me “No”
I will not talk to such a stupid fool
I hurt her soul with words in just one line
It was not right that is one thing I know
The words I said make me a stupid fool
Author notes
An apology
English