LGPL as Cinderella :-) (Score 1)

LPGL as Cinderella, or, The Quest to Share the Source

Her family knew she was the Lesser one.

declaimed long lecture on the virtues of the Elder,
and why none but the Greater one deserved
to be your only true choice.

As for the others,
the unFree ones who claimed to be of Open mind,
why they knew she was of that fervent kind,
and so not suited in scrupulous specification their wares to bind.

But in the latter days, minstrels told of how,
the camp of Moz the Red came to laud the sisters' beauty.
(And if some thought the Lesser fairer,
why perhaps this was only whispered,
lest such heresy disrupt the wooing.)
And much was spoken of how all ought have license
to wander at liberty, among the inner realms of the Open and the Free.

And then the minstrels relayed the tale
that even the keenest of the delving elves
now pledged fealty to the Eldest sister of the Free,
jousting with the gnomish usurpers for favor in each release.

And all the while the trolls, as was ever their wont,
found much of which grumble,
and didst incessantly strive
to veil the lands in fuddish confusion.

Still, many were the requirements,
exacting and essential,
which inspired the quest
to release the Source for all to share.

Naysayers said not too narrow,
never restricted so neatly
as to fit only the tight confines of the Free,
in haughty exclusivity.

And the minstrels told of muttering that many who
raised the banner of the ram had motives mercenary,
pursuing plunder from lands beyond the Free,
complaints that, in outland endeavors, aid in arms and armor
was only advanced upon golden tribute to the few.

Fashion flaunted its fickle fads
against broadly styled designs,
frowning on excesses of generosity,
forsaking the wisdom of serpentine serendipity.

All agreed on glass, transparency
at the invoking of origination,
when the glory of source
was unveiled in splendid glare.

And most felt clarity must bind each contributor
in the same enchanted spell, for all who dare
in the open to declare, to forestall foul deceiver,
and the rise of selfish rivals who might not share.

Many said that only a shapely vessel would do,
no bloody chunks ripped out, to strew
in butcherous abandon, greedily.
No, though works might be combined,
they should be linked entire, modulated
with visible display of appropriate proper integrity.

And long the searching, so many lost hope,
falling by the wayside in baffled despair,
with faith too frustrated to renew.
The minstrels sang of how clashes and flames
drove off many who might have joined the quest to share.

Many seekers clung to clumsy convention,
quarrelled over creaky compromise,
or carved their own crude likenesses,
caring little what conflict might ensue.

But still some strove, until one day,
after long questing, some came to see that the Lesser one,
so long disparaged and neglected in her shabby niche,
might be the fairest of them all.

And thus might be told
the tale of how she was found,
the Lesser Princess of Gracious Liberty.

Bryan Bruns, September 5, 2000
originally posted at www.Nanodot.org

Coda
I fear in time's harsh glare she may not prove
half so fair as I might dream,
but in this light, for now, she outshines all others.
And tis a pleasant tale to tell.
For who can yet know, how far her domains might grow.