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Thursday, July 17, 2025

Imagined Medievals

Alcuin of York 
used talons from a stork 
to help him chew 
his bar-be-cue: 
"'Tis helpful eating pork." 

Venerable Bede, 
a bookman built for speed, 
penn'd tomes in reams -- 
though now it seems
this Briton couldn't read. 

Carolus the Bald 
was hairless falsely call'd. 
Who'd on him pin
"King Head-'o-Skin" 
would see Carolus gall'd.

Monday, July 14, 2025

"A Pint o' Pease, Please!"; or, Pick Your Porridge! Pease Porridge Variants

Pease porridge hot. 
Pease porridge cold. 
Pease porridge covered in 
Peronospora mold. 
Some like it hot. 
Some like it cold. 
No one likes it covered in 
Peronospora mold. 

Pease porridge cold.
Pease porridge hot. 
Pease porridge top fermented
in Ma's copper pot. 
Many like it cold. 
Fewer like it hot. 
You'd like sev'ral growlers
whereas I'd like just a spot.
 
Pease porridge warm. 
Pease porridge cool. 
Pease porridge tepid, 
served with Papa's past'fazool. 
Few like it warm. 
Many like it cool. 
You can't seem to get enough
while too much makes me drool. 

Pease porridge cool. 
Pease porridge warm. 
Pease porridge regist'ring 
a diff'rent thermal form. 
Some like it cool. 
Some like it warm. 
No one likes it anywhere 
where lukewarm is the norm. 

Pease porridge grey. 
Pease porridge green. 
Pease porridge made in Grandma's 
platinum tureen. 
You like it grey. 
I like it green. 
No one likes it midnight blue: 
they don't know where it's been. 

Pease porridge green. 
Pease porridge grey. 
Pease porridge partner'd 
with a Caesar salad, say. 
I like it green. 
You like it grey. 
We both like it tomorrow, 
not today or yesterday.

Pease porridge sweet. 
Pease porridge dry.
Pease porridge complements 
a  huckleberry pie. 
I like it sweet. 
You like it dry. 
Grampa likes it not at all 
but will not tell me why. 

Pease porridge dry. 
Pease porridge sweet. 
Pease porridge -- served in saucers,
over ice or neat.
Pease porridge dry. 
Pease porridge sweet.
Pease porridge -- do as follows: 
pour, sniff, drink, repeat. 

Pease porridge nuked.
Pease porridge chill'dI
Pease porridge in a growler...
Careful lest it's spill'd. 
None like it nuked.
All like it chill'd.
So: may I have the same again, please...? 
I'm not nearly fill'd."

Pease porridge chill'd. 
Pease porridge nuked. 
Pease porridge I'll reorder 
lest I stand rebuked. 
All like it chill'd. 
None like it nuked. 
Late last night I chugged two mugfuls...
...whereupon I puked.

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

Lolita, light of my life... 

...might fail to yell "Foil!"... 

...or opt to yell "Epee!" --
she's just that unpredictable...

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment Anagramaniacal Openin Lines

On an exceptionally hot evening...

...having no expectation, none yell...

...such triple-digit temps can leave  even the most gung-ho Russian peasant unmotivated...

Sunday, June 29, 2025

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces... 

...three Harpwig FC wheels (NG) 'n' three-foot Cucu beetles (NG)... 

...two strikers and a goalie from the recently relegated Yorkshire football club and several exceedingly tall insects imported from Amazonia -- and nary a one of 'em any good...

William Shakespeare's Richard III Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

Now is the winter of our discontent...

...wet feet, no oro sun, thin cows in dirt... 

...and my damn back is killin' me.

Saturday, June 28, 2025

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hudred Years of Solitude Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad... 

...he -- Mr. Sage, Sr. as Chief Yananda -- quietly farted... 

It was in this role -- that of the charismatic though flatulent tribal leader of the local Yanomamo natives -- which the elderly actor had performed on the West End stage to some critical applause only three months before being convicted and sentenced to death for the kidnapping and murder of El Presidente's only daughter.

Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

In a village of La Mancha... 

...Che, an ailing vole, a lama... 

...with only months to live, preached to his fellow lemmings a religion fusing Cuban Marxism with Tibetan spiritual practices...



Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

If sailor tales to sailor tunes...

...fail to start one's isle-air soul... 

...then wtf...?

Richard Llewellyn's How Green Was My Valley Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

I am packing my belongings...

...Ma -- locking penis in gym bag... 

Look the other way, won't you, please, Mother, 'til I'm finished...?

George Orwell's 1984 Anagramaniacal Opening Lines

It was a bright cold day in April...

...what AI call'd "a boy's tiring drip"... 

...just how tiring the drip could become young Winston would  discover all too soon...

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...