Bravo Barry! An ABC

     (Anyone (you...?) can easily adapt these 

lines to pay homage to Reggie White, Jenn White 

or some other similarly surnamed celebrity of 

your choice.) 

There's the white call'd alabaster. 

There's the white of bleachéd bones.
There's the white of shirts with collars 

donn'd by fuddy-duddy Jones.

There's the white on cliffs down Dover way. 

There's whites of egrets' eggs.
There's the white of faint-hearts' feathers 

as that cad forgiveness begs.

There's the predatory great white. 

(Aren't white herons great as well...?)
There are white piano iv'ries. 

Jack White knows no parallel.

Seen on airplane flights: white knuckles. 

Heard in proxy fights: white lies.
And on Broadway, cows named Milky White. 

(In Sondheim's play, one dies.*)     

I have childhood friends who're non-white. 

Off-off-white's a fashion shade.
Pearl White's both a color and an actress. 

(One was bound to fade.)

There's the White Queen -- friend to Alice. 

White rice...? On the whole, it's white.
Ms. Snow White (she lived with seven dwarves). 

White trash enhances blight.

There's the ultra white of salesmen's smiles. 

Vanilla white's for cones,
while white wine is not. (How far we've got 

from cliffs and bleachéd bones!)

Cafe singers croon "White Xmas." 

Hey! Both you and I are white.
And Zin is white. But Barry White 

is black -- and outta sight!

     * In "Into the Woods"

Nursery Rhyme Backstory: Old Mother Hubbard

The Hubbard household used to be
the pillars of community.
Their juveniles then left the land

to seek their fortunes elsewhere -- and,

once others -- elders -- too, had gone,

who left was there to carry on...?

     The matriarch, with her Jack Russell,

'round th'ancestral pile would bustle.

Income, though, did not "come in."

When food ran out, the pair wax'd thin.

In larder left...? Not even bones.

Both starved. (Attend ye: curs 'n' crones!)