Category Archive: Poetry
Ode for Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) The argument from merit Casts us all in a harsh light, Elevation arbitrary Tends to set things right. A young girl, out of Africa Came home to wear a crown, She asked for peoples’ prayers So she would never let them down. And while her Empire crumbled She refused to do the same, Lack of power her super-power, ‘De-Colonize’ her name. Her race is run and she will lie The wrong side of the turf; As certain as the sunrise – Timeless as the Earth.
Continue Reading →Parody # 6: The Spoodle (Home From the Lab)
(with apologies to R. M. Rilke and his ‘Panther’) His vision, from neurotic genes Has grown so confused it cannot bear Life. It seems to him there is No line, and in his mirror image, no life. As he squeals and rolls his eyes, again He totters on rickety, confected pegs Like the fabricated gait of a wind-up doll In which no sentience occurs. Only at times, the veil lifts Quietly; he sees a dog from the pound, A vague picture forms of real life and love – It clambers through his button eyes, plunges the metal…
Continue Reading →Parody # 5: This Be the Disgrace
(with apologies to Philip Larkin and “This Be the Verse”) They f__k you up, your teaching staff. They may not mean to, but they do. Merrily they meet and laugh When a spot of teaching might fall due. But they were f__ked up in their turn By the hapless, cringing bureaucrats, Who half the time lacked all concern And half involved in drunken spats. Teachers take sabbaticals, That last longer than world wars. Bring the kids home from school halls Protect them from a useless cause.
Continue Reading →Parody # 4: The Blogger’s Children
(With apologies to Rudyard Kipling) I keep six slavish acronyms By whom I set much store, Their names are WTF and LOL, IMHO and more, And FOMO and TBH and also BRB, My serfs I like and I keep them, but also set them free. I send them over the world wide web I send them high and low But after they have done their work I’m told just where to go.
Continue Reading →Parody # 3: “The Prince and The Influencer”
(with apologies to Edward Lear and “The Owl and the Pussycat”) A Royal wranger went over the sea On a beautiful private jet, With a B-grade actress, and some cash And a Netflix contract to get. The Prince looked out over L.A. below And sang to his i-pod stream: ‘Will you be my mummy as we go, Can I join your millennial team?” So they took their bows and renewed their vows With the turkey who has her own show, They had a beach pad and kale they had Which they ate with a runcible spoon: With their hands…
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