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Friday, February 1, 2019

Only Connected ala "Dry Bones" -- & Well Within My Comfort Zones


Marroz pone's connected to my...butter’d scone; 
my butter’d scone's connected to my...Cotes du Rhone; 
my Cotes-du-Rhone's connected to my...drop zone; 
my drop zone's connected to my...Eten phone; 
my Eten phone's connected to my...fretful groan; 
my fretful groan's connected to my..."grow-your-own!"; 
my "grow-your-own"'s connected to my..."Home Alone"; 
my "Home Alone"'s connected to my...intel (blown); 
my intel’s connected to my...Jonas Cohn; 
my Jonas Cohn's connected to my...Khmer-Mon;
my Khmer-Mon's connected to my...loathsome crone; 
my loathsome crone's connected to my...men's room throne; 
my men's room throne's connected to my...nose cone; 
my nose cone's connected to my...oat (wild, sown); 
my oat (wild, sown)'s connected to my...posture (prone); 
my posture (prone)'s connected to my...Quicken Loan; 
my Quicken Loan's connected to my...robot drone; 
my robot drone's connected to my..."Saint Joan"; 
my "Saint Joan"'s connected to my...Torrid Zone; 
my Torrid Zone's connected to my...undertone; 
my undertone's connected to my...varnish roan; 
my varnish roan's connected to my...Wingy Manone; 
my Wingy is connected to my...xylophone; 
my xylophone's connected to my...yawning drone; 
my yawning drone's connected to my...zits (not shown)…

NOW I hear the word of the Lord!   

Complexity

All its cockles and mussels and oysters and clams,
all its marmalades, lemon curds, jellies and jams,
all its levees and breakwaters, ditches and dams...
crowd the cosmos and leave it complex.

With its Myanmars and Monacos, Spains and Siams,
with its buggies and carriages, strollers and prams,
with its swearings and oaths, with its curses and "Damn!"s...
it's profound in a round of respects.

All its ounces and carats, its grains and its grams,
all its misters and missuses, sirs and mesdames,
all its Maxims and Morties, its Sams and its Shazams…
beg the Q&A, "What in heck’s nex'?"

With its aunties and uncles, its grampas and grams,
with its briskets and pot roasts, its veal joints and hams,
with its puppies and ponies and kittens and lambs...
how's it manage to salvage such wrecks?

All its bunkos and frauds, all its shakedowns and scams, 
all its streetcars and gondolas, trolleys and trams, 
all its "Cheerio!"s, "Ciao!"s, "So long, Sammy!"s and "Scram!"s...
tend to lead one to Windex one's specs.

With its pop quizzes, mideterms and final exams,
with its tubers and 'taters, its spuds and its yams, 
with its beanies and bonnets, its top hats and tams...
what comes next? To apostatize sex? 

All its Tinas and Trishas, its Pollys and Pams, 
all its 'were's and 'once was'es, its 'is'es and 'am's, 
all its "Splooge!"s and "Fwap!"s, its "Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!"s...
leave it curved – both concave and convex! 

With its cookies and crackers, its melbas and grahams,
with its lintels and lock rails, its joists and its jambs,  
with its potted meats, jerkys, Tofurkys and Spams...
'tis enough to kerfuff’ Malcolm X!

Climate Change Language Exercise: Another Adventure in Linguature

The rain, ‘tis plain,
runs gainly down our lane…
though stains the drain.
The snow, we know,
must blow: drifts drift and grow.
Where're we to go?

This wind, my “frind,”
shall “sind me ‘roun’ de bind.”
My ears? They’re pinn’d.
This ice? Not nice.
(Posh Spice has stumbl’d...twice! 
What’s your advice?)

This sleet’s “fer sheet.”
My seat has lost all heat…
can’t feel my feet.
This mud? God’s blood!
We trudge through muck and crud:
a freakin’ flood!

The fog’s turn’d smog.
All soggy’s grown each tog.
We’re not agog.
This hail won’t fail
our mailman to derail.
Just one more nail…

This dust be cuss’d!
Nonpluss’d, we’re truss’d in crust.
Must we adjust?
The warming’s uncharming,
disarming. More: alarming!
Harms the farming.

Tsunami? Miami’s
still balmy, though less palmy.
Call my Mommie!
Scirocco? Morocco and Bang-
kok go on the block. (So,
where’s Iraq go?)

The fires require
attire heat-treated prior –
or you’ll perspire.
This smoke’s no joke:
Al Roker’s had a stroke.
Ya toke, ya croak!

Armageddon?
We’ve made our beddin’…

Thursday, January 31, 2019

-Cide by -Cide or Murders He Wrote

Moi? Contemplate self-murder? Nah! I’m fa-a-a-a-a too "nah"cissistic.
To kill another, on the other hand? That's fatalistic.

While often bored with board games (though Parcheesi I’ve not tried),
I murder’d Colonel Mustard -- and was tried for Clueicide.

Insisting I’d not slit my wrists, committing suicide,
I massacred the March King -- and was tried for Sousacide.

Though I, like you, revere the gnu (I poachers can’t abide),
still, wildebeests I’ve wasted -- and been tried for gnuicide. 

*  *  *  *  *

While claiming I’d not slay the wife – how could I harm my bride? --
I poison’d her pastrami -- and was tried for shrewicide.

While noting I’d no Kigmie kill (“So cute! So cute!” I’d cried),
I snuff'd a pair and, then and there, was tried for shmooicide.

A female Doctor? (Some have mock'd her maiden TARDIS ride.)
But, no: not me! I'll not, you see, be tried for Whoicide. 

While mouthing, “Me? Dispatch a flea? Such cavil hurts my pride,”
I crucified a zooful -- and was tried for zooicide.

*  *  *  *  *

Berating gender bias, I felt uber-qualified
to decapitate Capote -- and get tried for Truicide.

While cleaning out the septic tank, well-arm'd with fungicide,
I brain’d each bac I bared there -- and was tried for sewercide.

Insisting, “I’m pro-Indian…” (whatever that implied),
I scalp’d Black Elk and Red Cloud -- and was tried for Siouxicide.*
     * N.B.: I was not tried for croaking Crow King. 

Moi? Contemplate self-murder? Nah! I’m still too "nah"cissistic.
To shoot or smother some poor other? That's (I've learn'd) linguistic.

Two Homophonic Doggerel Distichs

Carlo Collodi, Italian-born teller of tots' tall tales, talks of Pinocchio's nose.
Karl "Loco" Lowe-Dee,* our arboriculturist, plants, prunes, then fells, our pin oak. (He grows sloes.)
     * Not to be confused with Carl O'Culo, de humongous-posterior'd poet-in-residence -- why no one knows. 

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55: all Fibonaccis.
"8, 9, 10 -- maybe a dozen -- Jews actually died in the Holocaust"...? Tall fib o' Nazis.

Calendar Caliente or Chili Doggerel


Pins 'n' needles! Eyes 'n' hooks!
Chill January's hues seem slates,
a grey-grim play of sleet. She looks
a climate prime for skis 'n' skates.
This chili pepper celebrates
by donning earmuffs, scarf 'n' gloves
to undertake not guff he hates
but thin-ice skating -- stuff he loves.


Pins 'n' needles! Hooks 'n' eyes!
Fleet February's twenty eight, 
in falling three days short, supplies
less shot to venerate one's mate.
This chili pepper's running late
delivering his valentine.
He must (and soon!) accelerate:
"Get goin'!" That's his bottom line.



Hooks 'n' eyes 'n' nuts 'n' bolts!
Mid-March's Ides can’t hide Spring's flowers.
Lads in love, cavorting colts,
big blossoms cop from blooming bowers.
Thefts like theirs take sev'ral hours,
maybe less. (No more than two.) 
This chili's savoir faire ne'er sours:
just hear him blurt, "These buds? For you!"


Hooks 'n' eyes 'n' bolts 'n' nuts!
Escape an April's Easter eggs?
Nope! Basket fill’d, this chili struts,
sashaying on his own two pegs.
"May I make mucho more?" he begs. 
"The ankle biters love 'em so,
nor's FDA releasing regs
suppressing eggs. Say I, ‘Let's go!’"


Bolts 'n' nuts 'n' forks 'n' spoons! 
Which gifting day in May's the worst?
De Mayo Cinco France impugns;
preferring May Day -- that's the first.
"The best," rants William Randolph Hearst, 
"is World Press Freedom Day -- the third." 
(This chili, Mom's gifts undispers’d,
orates. He prates, "They're all absurd!")


Bolts 'n' nuts 'n' spoons 'n' forks!
In June, platoons of grads 'n' dads
(though tagg’d by family “dweebs” 'n' “dorks”) 
get gifts -- designer ties in plaids.
This chili'd rather troll for shads.
With six-packs in his tackle box,
he trawls among the lily pads.
(His catches cache shad roes, shad lox.) 



Spoons 'n' forks 'n' Spocks 'n' Kirks!
Jejune July's supremacists
malign, ‘mid flags ‘n’ fireworks,
more recent settlers in their midsts.
This chili simply coexists.
Like Pete 'n' Woody belts out he
(in dissing these recidivists),
"...this land was made for you and mee-e-e-e!"


Spoons 'n' forks 'n' Kirks 'n' Spocks!
The puns of August beam their rays
on circus clowns in pleated frocks
who juggle balls come circus days.
But do not think these chilis gays,
their frocks 'n' fright wigs notwithstanding --
though most do play cabarets
where juggling junk is most demanding.


Kirks 'n' Spocks 'n' things 'n' wings!
September signals: “Back to school!”
This chili in his backpack brings
an Apple XR iPhone. (Cool!)
But there are jealous chilis who’ll
report this to his home-room teacher.
She’ll impound the phone (that ghoul!).
'Tis worse than pointless to beseech her.



Kirks 'n' Spocks 'n' wings 'n' things!
October’s ears will hear, “Surprise!”
‘cuz bombshells each election brings
most napping polsters traumatize.
Does such hold true for all those guys?
Nope! Some Autumnals do quite well.
This chili? “Tricks or treats,” he cries
from deep inside his pumpkin shell.  



Wings 'n' things 'n' needles 'n' pins!
Bees, bears 'n' bats -- all beasts who snooze --
begin to don November skins
(in lieu of hitting Veracruz).
This chili, though, dons buckle shoes
(his hat 'n' belt sport buckles, too)
and goes in search of turkeys, whose
pluck’d carcasses he’ll barbecue.



Wings 'n' things 'n' pins 'n' needles!
Come December’s holiday
unless you’re Dum or Dee (those Tweedles),
soon you'll winterize your sleigh
and, not unlike this chili, say,
“Before I and my deer take flight,
and give this sack of toys away,
keep Xmas all! And so: goodnight!”

Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Oodles & Oodles (6,624 to be Exact: Thank You, JD) of Protest Chants for the 2020 US Election: a Cybertext Paying a Petit Hommage to Founding Oulipian Raymond Queneau and His Famed One Hundred Million Million Sonnets

A     A    A    A    A    A    A    A    A    A    A    A
B     E    G    I    K    M    O    Q   S    U    W   Y 
C     F    H    J    L    N     P    R    T    V    X    Z
D1   D2   D3  D4  D5   D6   D7   D8  D9  D10  D11  D12

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
His neckties still hang down too low.
He doesn’t know he doesn’t know.
(Real hair…? Or musty oleo?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Did he once host some TV show?
His BFF’s our Russkie foe.
(Real hair…? Or mangl'd UFO?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Why’s he behave like Putin’s ‘ho’?
He brags, “I’m rich!” So: where’s the dough?
(Real hair…? Or melting Arctic floe?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
He claims he speaks for Av’rage Joe.
How much back taxes does he owe?
(Real hair…? Or damaged drag queen ‘fro?

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
His plan? Expand Guantanamo.
His tweets elicit vertigo.
(Real hair…? Or frosted cookie dough?  

Hey hey! Ho, ho!
He started lying lo-o-o-ong ago.
Some hoped he’d change, but he won’t grow.
(Real hair…? Or back yard yellow snow?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Some thought he’d shake up status quo.
But he’s a fake, so did he? No!
(Real hair…? Or dumpster'd Sloppy Joe?) 

Hey hey! Ho, ho!
He’s big on braggadocio.
He plumps for Wade; he dumps on Roe.
(Real hair…? Or stale whipp’d cream gateau?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
Mysogyny he won’t outgrow.
He grabs ‘em by their…what…? Hello!
(Real hair…? Or cesspool backup flow?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
“Psychotic!” writes Politico.
Just call him ‘Gen’ralissimo.’
(Real hair…? Or prorogued embryo?)

Hey, hey! Ho, ho!
He calls himself a CEO
He “governs” with four kids in tow.
(Real hair…? You know…I just don’t know.)

Hey hey! Ho, ho!
His bus’ness model’s quid pro quo.
His government’s a puppet show.
You still will vote for him…? Oh, no!!

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Sunshine Boys & Girls Must Come to Dust

Uncle Willy* wax'd vehement: “‘Pickle’ is funny.
An' ‘chicken.’ An' ‘cockroach.’ An' ‘cupcake’ is funny.
All ‘woids wid a K,’ not wid M, not wid L.”
Makes one wonder what Willy would designate ‘knell.’
Or ‘Ivanka’? Thinks Willy ‘Ivanka’ so funny?
Steve B thinks Ivanka’s “as dumb as a brick.”
Nowadays, ‘brick''s a funny word. (So, Steve, is ‘prick.’)

Makes one wonder if Willy’d think ‘Kushner’ so funny.
Chris Christie thinks Kushner's both bitter and sick.
Nowadays, ‘sick’'s a funny word. (So, Chris, is ‘kill’ --
as is 'kin,' 'lock'd up,' 'Newark' and 'Mockingbird Hill.'
You and Jared are, both of you, critic'lly ill.
Makes one wonder what verdict might render our Will.)

Take 'Kellyanne Conway': it starts with a K.
Hear Ms. K ramble on how Hill's emails got hack'd
(nowadays, 'hack'd''s a funny word) till she redacts
with black markers and guile -- and alternative facts.
Makes one wonder: would Willy think truth has been jack'd?

W
hat of ‘Huckabee Sanders’? Remarkably funny.
‘Remark’ is a funny word; Sarah’s sure are:
most remarkable, awful…and awf'lly bizarre.
I perceive Sister Sarah as chip off a block.
Nowadays, ‘block’ is funny. Dad Mike? He's a crock.
'Block,' Mike,' ‘crock’? Funny all. (As is, nowadays, ‘mock.')

     * Uncle Willy Clark is the cantankerous retired vaudevillian Walter Matthau portrayed in the film version of Neil Simon's Broadway comedy "The Sunshine Boys."

Monday, January 28, 2019

Spasibo

Meet a marriage made in hell.
The Daddy doubles as the groom.
The bride? Ivanka…badda-boom!

Detect you that mendacious smell,
the bigly el'phant in the room?
It's not Ivanka's new perfume.

The bridesmaid's Conway -- born to sell
chic tchotchkes from Ivanka's Loom.
The goal? To boost Th’Ivanka Boom.

The Queen of Soul assesses well:
"Say, baby, who be zoomin' whom?"
(Ivanka needs a nom de plume.) 

That sound you hear? The sunset gun:
just dump the Kool-Aid in your Sanka.
First, though: fashions by Ivanka.

Who's to thank? The Trump Cartel.
('Merci' in French; in German, 'danke.' 
Thanks for all you do, Ivanka!)

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Role Call

I call my aunt Aunt Tipodees. So solitary, she.
I call my brother Brother ‘Hood. Small-town, small-time is he.
I call my cat Cat Astrophe. She runs amok when wet.
I call my dog Dog Matic. Spot’s one narrow-minded pet!
I call my eyes Eyes Sosceles. Each boasts an equal droop.
I call my face Face Etious when it names me Nincompoop.
I call my grandma Grandma Laise. The sad old hag ’s been sick.
I call my horse Horse Radish. That old nag still packs a kick.
I call my ID I De Clare. It's utile paying bills.
I call my jacket Jack et Jill. I sport it scaling hills.
I call my ketchup Ketch A Perch. "Delish" on fish and chips.
I call my legs Leg Humes. They'd pass for runner beans…with hips.
I call my mom Mom Entum. She outruns me. (Think of that!)
I call my nose No Se Um and pretend it’s not so fat.
I call my organ Organdy. It's draped with yards of yarn.
I call my pipa Pea Pod Tree, ‘cuz I don’t give a darn.
I call my quail Que Lo Que when I wish to know what's up.
I call my rabbit Rabid Dog: that hare's one scary pup.
I call my sister Cistern Tank: she’s got a potty mouth.
I call my toaster Toes Turn’d Black: it sends my slices south.
I call my undies Undecided. Nowt else comes to mind.
I call my vest Vestigial. It’s grown too small, I find.
I call my wart War-Torn. It's gross. It's foul. Some people stare.
I call my xyst Sestina. I compose my lyrics there.
I call my yoyo Yo Yo Ma: it plays upon a string.
I call my zebra C Brassiere. (I think that’s everything.)

Friday, January 25, 2019

C'est "See Bono" or Disambiguation II: Sonny & Sheer? Sonny & Shire? Sonny & Shore? Sonny & Sure? Sonny & Shower? Sonny & Shooer? Sonny & Share? Nope! Sonny & Cher!

See Bono relax on a bench or Bergere? That there's Sonny & Chair, never Sonny & Cher.
See Bono perturb hot pink pom poms with flair? That pair's Sonny & Cheer, never Sonny & Cher.

See Bono enjoy pulled pork barbecue fare? That there's Sonny & Char, never Sonny & Cher.
See Bono's plump partner? (What some people wear!) That pair's Sonny & Charo, not Sonny & Cher.

See Bono with Communist champions pair? That there's Sonny & Cho, never Sonny & Cher. 
See Bono wash dishes? (The drying's his share.) That pair's Sonny & Chore, never Sonny & Cher.

See Bono breathe Switzerland’s crisp Alpine air? That’ there's Sonny & Chur, never Sonny & Cher.
See Bono with Charilyn? No love lost there. That pair's Sonny & Cher. Yep, that’s Sonny & Cher.

Litany Chanted Over Schrödinger's Box

Is he dead yet...? 'Yes' or 'No'...?  All'd 'God Bless!' if 'Yes,' you know.  Is he dead yet...? Don...