Of Masks and Hoods

There was a masked ball in Venice on a certain holiday.
People came in hoods and masks of all finery.
We danced and spun and drank, till stupor
rose in the air and caused us to pour
Wine into imaginary cups and laugh to words unjoked.

It was a merry day; that day. And I learnt a merry tale.
It was told to me by a drunk as we drank our ale.
‘It worrs of a certn ball ich was eld of late
'ere a king had drank so much as to auction his mate…’
Though his words slurred I heard him clearly for also drunk was i

‘The king had opend the biddin with an ounce of gold flakes...
'An’ hands and hats had gone up to raise the stakes
Till the prize landed in the hands of the last to ask:
A million pounds of gold from a bidding mask'
The merriment continued till dawn and each went his merry way.

The winning bidder did wake the next morning,
And saw his wife beside him, yawning.
‘How was the ball?’ asked the wife rubbing her eyes.
‘I was too drunk to know ‘cept I won a prize,
I borrowed a million pounds to win and was too drunk to keep’

The wife kept mute; for that night, she had masked as king,
she had gone with the auctioneer with which she had a fling,
and they had both plotted to play a prank:
of which none ever has surpassed in rank.
A prank only behind masks was deemed possible

To cut off the in-between;
that morning, the king woke without a queen;
The queen woke in a stable having slept with a stranger.
Venice lost its entire savings: The town lender,
having lent it to someone he could not recognize.

Our lives are a tale of pretence as of the bidding:
where we wear Masks and hoods to keep our true selves hidden.
But masks and hood breeds nothing but trouble
Making the king a fool and the pauper heir to the royal stubble
So ended the tale of two drunks on a night in Venice.