Meetin Up Between the Acts

Richard lll as magnet. Chaperone.
Him bringing us together one more time...
How apt, us meeting in his shadow --
you a shadow of your former self,
a shadow that had fallen half across my life.
And what an irony that it should be the bar!

A jealous and ambitious man
who, like yourself, unable
most to prove (himself) a lover,
so out "to prove the villain," prove
how physical infirmity
does but reflect the soul.

He, too, would marry for advancement -- so
"I'll have her, but I will not keep her long"
(He'd take her in his madness for the throne.)
How apt you liked the part of Clarence best
whose vision was like yours -- of wealth,
of fortune unattainable by man.

So to return: the hunchback King,
tormented by his victims, found
at last reality. He came to realise
that if he died "No soul"
would pity him. How brave he proved at last --
if only he had not been murderous!

If only you had not clawed viciously
your way to win your far ambitions -- which
I fell for when you laid them at my feet,
but later saw their worth and was afraid.
Why let the one misfortune of your flesh
have too much sway on its young soul?