"My Darling Percy" (Plutonic Sonnets 120)

“My Darling Percy,” so his mother wrote

To Percival, her eldest, favorite son;

His father was accordingly remote,

A proper Brahmin sire, not much for fun.

At Harvard, Percy turned out to excel

In the humanities, and science too;

Then in the family business did quite well:

It seems there wasn’t much he couldn’t do.

But he was champing at the Brahmin bit;

He and his clever friends were wont to scoff

At its restraints. So rather than submit

To Brahmin bridal plans, he broke things off;

And strongly set on being his own man,

Set off on a long journey to Japan.