...on Puccini & Browning, Evangelist Mark & Swift
Pinkerton's hit with paternity suit;
pest-control expert misplaces his flute.
Pregnant young Jewess books Bethlehem inn...
and Lem won't expound on the places he's been.
...on Shakespeare & Hart, Dostoyevsky & Hart again
"Let bygones be bygones," Othello avers;
she does go to Harlem in jewelry and furs.
F. Karamazov sires nothing but girls...
and she does enjoy crap games with barons and earls.
...on Raymond & Khayyam, Trendle/Striker & Austin
Emperor Ming Mongo's throne cedes to Flash;
tentmaker Omar writes, "Don't take the cash."
Tonto rides Silver; the Ranger rides Scout...
and Elizabeth Bennett has fin'lly come out.
...on Proust & Dickens, Alighieri & Milton
"What is that smell...?" asks Marcel -- "I forget";
the children of Dorrit pay off Daddy's debt.
Dante can't find his way out of the wood...
and Lucifer backtracks, embracing the good.
...on Melville & de Troyes, Seuss & Seurat
Ahab retires after killing the whale;
Lancelot pauses his search for the Grail.
"Does anyone still wear a hat...?" asks the Cat...
"Does anyone still wear a hat...?" asks the Cat...
and Sundays, gendarmes close the Ile de Grande Jatte.
...on Plato & Stow, Baum & Rabelais
Greek sage thinks truth's best observed from a cave;
Robin Hood, yeoman, gets hung as a knave.
Twister kills Kansas girl shelt'ring at home...
and Pantagruel's merely a feeble French gnome.
...on Burton & Mother Goose, Scott et al. & Moore
Sheherazade runs short of tales to relate;
Jack Spratt has put on a great deal of weight.
Ginger and Fred dance to waltzes by Strauss...
and creatures are stirring -- yes, even a mouse!
...on Hemingway & Mother Goose, Genesis & Ende
Elderly angler lands prize-winning fish;
the spoon can't -- or won't -- run away with the dish.
Abel and Cain disagree but part friends...
and that story we thought never-ending...? It ends.
Abel and Cain disagree but part friends...
and that story we thought never-ending...? It ends.
...on Bulwer-Lytton & Genesis, Milne & McCarthy/Buchman
Weather that night...? Neither stormy nor dark;
sun comes out -- Noah scraps plans for an ark.
Pooh tutors Piglet on gravity waves...
and, though urged to go wild, Theodora behaves.
...on Mankiewicz & Evangelist John, Thurber & the OT
Charles Foster Kane runs for POTUS -- and wins;
Jesus refuses to die for your sins.
Wallflower Mitty acknowledges truth...
and Boaz won't wed with the Moabite Ruth.
...on Borges & Carroll, Eliot/Conrad and Shakespeare
Funes gets Alzheimer's, moves to a home;
there aren't any raths -- leastwise none you'd call 'mome.'
Tom misquotes Joe: "Mistah Kurtz -- he ain't dead"...
and Will wills his widow his second-worst bed.
...on Genesis & HIstory.com, Shakespeare & Dickens
Adam tells Eve, "Not now, Darling -- I'm full";
George Armstrong Custer defeats Sitting Bull.
Macbeth runs away from that scrap with McDuff...
and Scrooge won't become a Noël-loving fluff.
