Tone Deafness of J Alfred Prufrock

A literary allusion based on
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T S Eliot

And indeed there will be time
To wonder
"Do I dare? and " Do I dare?"
This whispered question
humming in your ear your
thoughts of braceleted arms
white and bare
Never wrapped about your waist
the perfume rising from her dress


And would it have been worth it ,after all
After the cups, the marmalade , the tea
Among the porcelain among some talk of you and me
To squeeze the universe into a ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming question
Before you grow too old, too old

You shall wear the
bottoms of your trousers rolled
walk along the beach
watch the mermaids riding seaward
Combing the white hair of the waves

And although you have wept and fasted
Wept and prayed
Your greatness flickers and no longer burns
burdened with minutiae and indecisions
" Should I part my hair behind
Do I dare eat a peach?"
"How my hair is growing thin"
you soft shoe shuffle to your loneliness

You  used to hear the  mermaids
singing rippling melodies  across the sea
but those songs petered  long ago
and all that remains are sonorous thuds
of  dark  waves pounding on the shell grit shore