Stardom Poem by Ivan Donn Carswell

i wanna be popular
she cries i don’t care how
i get there i wanna be top
of a tree with a star and
adulation dripping
off of me

then lass he says
change your ways
be less yourself and more a
vague but persistent rumour
writing verse is a
pathway to fame

i’ll do it she says i’ll
write nite and day and read
and revise and excite admirers
with the best rhymes
and nicest annotations
you can think of

then gather admirers
from friendly conspirers
he says - quality matters
but masses of like-minded
drifting together will
make you a star anyway

i want to be cried over
after i’m dead and bathed in
the same adulation i had
when alive – i want to be
held in enduring
affection

sadly he says there’s no
guarantee that your fate after
death will be properly weighed
the same crew that made you
a star on the tree will also be
dead most irrevocably