The notorious tend to pen

a memoir that reads more

like a grimoire, brimming

with tales of spells cast

on unsuspecting sycophants,

as the cast of heroes and

villains gets re-arranged

to play the narrator's 

revisionist redaction game. 

 

But one may yet unveil 

the farce: all it really

takes is to parse

the pretension pleading 

to be housed in the pantheon

of the holier-than-thou, and

to remember that history is

handily wrought in hindsight,

so there will be more than

a smidge of oversight;

there will be opportune 

omission, and embellishment

for a little extra frisson.