New March

I changed this one to have 10 lines in each stanza, concordant rhyming scheme, and 8 syllables in each line. Let me know if you think it is an improvement.

I sit here on the first of March

And I have had my nameless day

in sullen, mottled economy

of mind - nothing do I say

but of auguries well untrue

as might spit the embittered sphinx

that Oedipus wrought with the rue

that all chastn'd riddlers do feel

at being sounded like a bell

with no muffle to dead'n the peal

So long is wisdom badly kept

interred in th' furnace of our breast

(spewing fallow seedlings of change

that threaten always to molest

my impatient autonomy)

that I work 'pon more vital things,

the outward show of liberty,

as would in my hands abide-

O, fickle and careless freedom,

why choose the young 'mong us to chide?