Bush & Company

Fabled "scribbling bachelor" James

Could have invented Valerie Plame,

Who, thrust into unasked-for fame,

Joins the roster of Jamesian names;

Though not the same as counterpart,

Well-meant but contriving Adela Chart

Or Miriam Rooth, the "tragic muse,"

(Who could have made the evening news).

Not Fanny Knocker, once so plain,

A knockout when she reached her prime,

Nor potboiler novelist Greville Fane,

Obliged to write for financial gain;

Nor Fleda Vetch, who loved in vain---

Her good intentions so humane,

Was thereby doomed from love to part

And ended with a shattered heart.

Val, pawn in an egregious plot,

A made-up character was not,

Who goes down in the annals of time,

No creature brilliantly begot

Of the storyteller's art;

Unvindicated she and who's

The victim (fated to remain?)

Of a so far, still unpunished crime.