The Mill-Stream Rushes By (Parody) Poem by Gert Strydom

(with apologies to A. E. Housman)

The millstream rushes by sounding like a disease
in all this I cannot hold my peace,
under the bridge the devil passes by
and tonight with him escaped from hell, here am I.

Who created the world I know but cannot now tell,
“It was made and I am here and the devil out of hell.
My hand shakes because he’s freed,
I never thought that we would meet.

And so, I doubt in all eternity, anyone gone by,
none has suffered here such as I
who could not spend the night alone, the devil isn’t gone
and I can’t even strike my fist; I am standing here like stone.

[Reference: XIX “The mill-stream, now that noises cease” by A. E. Housman.]