If I Had Told You

By Jude <judithwilliams@hotmail.com>

Rated G

Submitted November, 2000

Summary: A contemporary sonnet for a contemporary couple as Clark pleads his case in the episode "We Have a Lot to Talk About."

Hazel set up a sonnet challenge on Zoom's Boards and it set me thinking. I hadn't written any poetry since an exploration, last year, of Japanese Haiku and Tonka and certainly hadn't written anything in sonnet form for years. It took a while to complete and it's changed from the one I posted on the Boards. As I said there, greeting cards are easy; sonnets (and A-plots unless you're Sheila or Nan) are hard. I want to thank Gerry Anklewicz for being a terrific sounding board and consultant. She gave me the poetic line that had been eluding me and made it possible for me to complete the poem. Here is the final version, inspired by WHALTTA and my favorite Victorian poet cum Superman, Robert Browning.

***

If I Had Told You…

If I had told you all when first we met, Would you have stopped to know and love the man Behind the suit—the panoply which set Me so apart, no ordinary scan Could find my secret out? Or would you still Be dazed, your mind, kaleidoscopic-hue- Entranced, unable to assert its will Beyond romance's blind myopic view?

Perhaps some cosmic dice have cast our fate: A chance to share a life we both can own; But you'll decide the end of this debate: If you will stay or leave me all alone.

I know, however our two souls were hurled Together, loving you completes my world.

THE END