Bard Billot on the Baron
The Politics of Envy
Along the halls of power and House of State,
Each winter night when shadows sprawl
A ghostly spectre drifts discontent’d
Over dank and grimy flagstones:
The forsaken spirit of an ancient lord,
Baron Luxon of the downs of Botany.
Cursed to wander eternally
In lonely exile these past centuries,
Just like the shades of his ancestors who gather round:
Simon the Headless Horseman,
Hapless Toad of Mullet,
The Mad Lady in the Attic Judith.
All glow softly in the dark,
These souls who reached for the Gilded Crown
That slipped out of their fumbling grasp.
The Apparition of Baron Luxon floats
Past the chattering scribes
Of the Press Gallery, invisible to their gaze.
The Phantom of Baron Luxon moans of taxpayer receipts
To the passing crowds of bottom feeders,
But all they hear is the rustling
Of dead leaves in the cold wind.
Then the disembodied Baron
Watches on with mournful gaze
As the townsfolk dance and clap
And place garlands of flowers
Around the neck of his successor Princess Nicola,
As she smiles and radiates the natural charisma
He found so hard to conjure
From outrageous fortune’s bounty. Victor Billot has previously felt moved to write Odes for such luminaries as Gore mayor Ben Bell, King Charles III, Tova O'Brien, Mike Hosking, and Garrick Tremain.
