In His Pocket

My offering for this month's writing prompt at Poets Online.
You were to write from the perspective of a famous person's animal. I had a fun time with it.

IN HIS POCKET

I am famous, in a round-about way,
a fact that doesn’t square
with your knowledge
or your understanding
or your perceptions
about anything.

The things you think you know,
people told you,
or maybe you just saw them
from your own angle
and misunderstood.
Misinterpreted.

His hand in his vest,
for instance.

Baroque gentility from
a political genius.
Or so he thought.
As did you.
Unless you thought at all.
Then you would have called him a monster
with an ever-expanding empire.

Monstrous genius.
Brilliant monstrosity.

(Then, in the end,
after all the fanfare,
fighting every country you can find,
in wars named after you,
you’re known only for being short
with your hand in your vest.)

Gentility and war.
Such unusual bedfellows.

Like he and I.

The monster 
and the lizard in his pocket.

© 2010 Laurie Sitterding