Vice verse

In Competition 2841 you were invited to paint an amusing portrait in verse of the vice and folly of humankind.

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Druin Burch

Lucy Letby and the killer nurse I worked with

It was William Congreve who wrote that it is the business of a comic poet to paint the vice and follies of humankind, and I thought I would give you the opportunity to do just that. Gail White expresses doubt that ‘the vices of our flesh and minds’ can ‘be contained in sixteen lines’. But John O’Byrne boils it all down into a haiku: ‘My new credit card/ Means I can buy happiness./ Where did I go wrong?’ The extra fiver is Sylvia Fairley’s. Her fellow winners take £30.

Oh, the folly of man adds a frisson to life
That is otherwise empty and grey;
We can nurture, for spice, the occasional vice,
It will tend to keep boredom at bay.