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[mlr]

An Ever-Fixed Mark

Years ago, at a private school

Run on traditional lines,

One fellow used to perform

Prodigious feats in the dorm;

His quite undevious designs

Found many a willing tool.

On the rugger field, in the gym,

Buck marked down at his leisure

The likeliest bits of stuff;

The notion, familiar enough,

Of 'using somebody for pleasure'

Seemed handy and harmless to him.

But another chap was above

The diversions of such a lout;

Seven years in the place

And he never got to first base

With the kid he followed about:

What interested Ralph was love.

He did the whole thing in style--

Letters three times a week,

Sonnet-sequences, Sunday walks;

Then, during one of their talks,

The youngster caressed his cheek,

And that made it all worth-while.

These days, for a quid pro quo,

Ralph's chum is all for romance;

Buck's playmates, family men,

Eye a Boy Scout now and then.

Sex stops when you pull up your pants,

Love never lets you go.

--Kingsley Amis