Marvel the Magician's Last Will and Testament
       

1
To you, Tallulah, I leave my satin top hat
lest you forget me and our years together

working the stage to the music's rat-a-tat.
To you, Tallulah, I leave lily satin top hat

hung on a bush beside your hutch so that
you'll surely see it whatever the weather.

To you, Tallulah, I leave my satin top hat
lest you forget me and our years together.

2
To you, Peru, I leave my best wool cloak
to warm your chicks and your broody hen.

Such a nest it will make in your dovecote!
To you, Peru, I leave my best wool cloak—

no strings attached, no mirror, no smoke—
and perpetual Tropi-Mix in your seed bin.

To you, Peru, I leave my best wool cloak
to warm your chicks and your broody hen.

3
To you, Ada, my assistant par excellence,
I leave the bulk of my considerable estate

and my cuffs and saw. You will not want.
To you, Ada, my assistant par excellence,

I leave my own handbook in a dark haunt
in my cellar beneath an oblong iron grate.

To you, Ada, my assistant par excellence,
I leave the bulk of my considerable estate.

4
To you my niece, sweet uncomely Claire,
I leave my copy of Love Potions & Spells

which will aid you in dispelling despair.
To you my niece, sweet uncomely Claire,

I leave advice: get a man and bear an heir
for loneliness is a pox only a child quells.

To you my niece, sweet uncomely Claire,
I leave my copy of Love Potions & Spells.

5
To you, Wilhelmina, my adulterous wife,
I leave a wand (may it conjure me whole

out of the ether), nine hatchets, and a knife.
For you, Wilhelmina, my adulterous wife,

there will be no young lovers or flush life
without me—yes, I'm a fox, I'm a mole!

To you, Wllhelmina, my adulterous wife,
I leave a wand. May it conjure me whole.

6
To you, Paolo, my love-child, my only son,
I leave my name. I pray that it sustains you.

There is little else, and I am nearly undone.
To you, Paolo, my love-child, my only son,

I leave the onus of my fame, all I've begun
and can never finish. O, regret pricks anew!

To you, Paolo, my love-child, my only son,
I leave my name. I pray that it sustains you.

Copyright © 2010 Myrna Stone All rights reserved
from The Casanova Chronicles
Etruscan Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission