31 Misc Laff: Two Sheryl Smith Poems
I began to write late in life when I realized suddenly one day that I was leaving nothing at all in the world. All old bachelors come to this feeling sooner or later. Don't let it ever happen to you . . . — Lafferty, letter to Sheryl Smith, October 1, 1971
Sheryl Smith, Lafferty’s first strong critic and correspondent, ran a computer consulting business in the years before her death in 2006. Her website, now long gone, featured “Sheryl’s Writing After Hours,” where she posted her poetry, much of it formal, including one brilliant sestina. Impossible to prove, but I suspect the following to be about her old friend.
The sestina:
