Have You Ever

She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She looked down to Camelot.
Lord Tennyson

Have you ever thought
You're writing an elaborate footnote,
Positioning yourself beneath
One thinker or another?
It might be a song that lilts,
Or a brutal declamation:
It does not really matter.
The flowers bloom in the Arctic
After the Equinox is attained;
We bloom into consciousness
After a fig leaf is positioned:
It really does matter
Assures one of several creeds.
There is much to this pageant
That some worn-out musical brocade
Can never wholly explain.