A Truth Universally Acknowledged—Right?

By Brenda S. Cox

Greetings, friends. It’s been a while since I’ve posted—I have so many ideas, but so little time. Here’s a little treat for you.

I’ve been reading a book called Poetry as Spiritual Practice, by Robert McDowell, on “Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions.” I’m having fun with it! The author challenged us to turn some favorite prose into poetry, and here’s what I did with it.

The Truth?

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”— Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1

Everyone knows

Who is everyone?

You know

All of us

Maybe all of them

Maybe not

Anyway, we all know what they say

Who are they?

Not us

Or maybe us in disguise

They say

“No wife . . .

no life.”

He is alone

Everybody needs somebody

They say

Who needs you?

Who needs me?

Who do I need?

Who do you need?

He needs She

Any She will do

Won’t she?

If and only if

He (and/or She) has a good job

(Lucrative? Fulfilling? Beneficial? Respectable?)

Money in the bank

(A little? A lot? Earned? Inherited?)

A house

(Ranch house? Condo? Town house? Manor?)

A car

(Sports car? Minivan? Station wagon? Barouche?)

Because he + she will equal more than two

Before long

Tell the truth

She needs He

If He needs She

They become We

They belong

It’s the truth.

Is it the truth? What do you think?