Robert Tilleard
SEEKING WORDS
He asks to see her art exam paper:
the subject set is \'Serendipity\'.
She promptly looks it up: The faculty
of making fortunate discoveries
by accident, especially while looking
for something else\" (coined by Horace Walpole
after \'The Three Princes of Serendip\',
a fairy tale of chance discoveries).
So she draws a picture of a white man
in baggy shorts and a sola topee.
He\'s a butterfly hunter with a net
on an exotic tropical island.
In a clearing he beholds a dragon,
A lovely girl-dragon sitting alone
playing a friendless game of backgammon.
Serendipitously he\'s chanced upon
more than a butterfly, and she\'s acquired
a partner for her game of backgammon.
He asks her: \"Does he net the dragon-girl?\"
\"Yes, he does - but the dragon-girl breathes fire\".
\"Is he falling in love with the dragon?\"
\"Yes, he is – but the fire is burning him.\"
\"Do you think his love is unrequited?\"
\"Requited?\"– she consults the dictionary:
Make return for, repay (for good or ill).
An early variant of \'quit\': to clear;
Repay, relinquish, absolve, abandon;
Discharge; resting, free from war, debts; unmarried.
She thinks it is an unrequited love.
\"But\", he says to the girl, \"unrequited
love is a prerequisite for heartbreak.\"
She looks up \'requisite\': Necessary;
from \'requisitus\', ask for, seek to know.
The girl asked for and sought for meaning.
The hunter sought the butterfly but found
an unasked for unrequited love for
a dragon-girl - bringing heartbreak and loss.
And the dragon-girl? How was she repaid? -
though in her innocence she sought nothing.
She got to breathe fire on a searching man
And found a backgammon partner – and won.