In Which I Travesty a Canonical Roman Poem

 

1

Sweet cheap wine, taste

with woodruff and berries and fingers

blood-red tulpen    snow-white, too

not snow-white snow –

woo-hoo     woo-hoo

Tantalizing green sets off

redbud seams in draws –

(It’s only natural to love the new

(those who get old r creepy

So black or fair me laddie-o

the ladies all come courtin’

Corinna fair and Paddy-o

with Lycidas are sportin’ –

(woo-hoo, &c.)

Birdy-snake / birdy-snake / birdy-snake

over-under-over-under-over-und

fluttering parti-colored spokes

All that happens tomorrow &

tomorrow,

woo-hoo.

When we play the poem down again,

half-empty or half-full,

then half nothing,

the maypole ribbons, guy-wires

of th’universal antenna, the dick,            

wind down, alas, as well. 

All’s well            ah well,

Woo-hoo.

2

Finally, a toasty breeze!  instead of

freezing my ass off in a fricking gale –

Flowery foresters are out, I’m out,

everyone’s out to each other,

fast in a bass boat or walkin the dog

Cytherean Venus and the Nymphs,

decked out as hippie chicks, play

an outdoor gig – or some Ultimate –

while her sucker husband

has the day shift in the boiler room

nobody wears lilac, myrtle –

none of that sissy stuff 'round here –

but if they did, they’d do it now.

Jesus, stop sacrificing for once

in your life!  It’s nice – play ball!

Soon enough the ump of all

will call you out at home    hence

delayed gratification means an ox-eye,

moron.     So: retire immediately, Joe –

before you retire for good,

a weirdo ghost, to a flickering home

from whose bourn you don’t get back

your winnings, winings, whinings,

or self.  Nothin but sixes and tens

then – and no randy dallying, sure.