Epigrams Vi
Epigrams VI
These are humorous epigrams including a form I call "Less Heroic Couplets."
Less Heroic Couplets: Mini-Ode to Stamina
by Michael R. Burch
When you’ve given so much
that I can’t bear your touch,
then from a safe distance
let me admire your persistence.
Less Heroic Couplets: Less than Impressed
by Michael R. Burch
for T. M., regarding certain dispensers of lukewarm air
Their volume's impressive, it's true...
but somehow it all seems 'much ado.'
Less Heroic Couplets: Crop Duster
by Michael R. Burch
We are dust and to dust we must return ...
but why, then, life’s pointless sojourn?
First Base Freeze
by Michael R. Burch
I find your love unappealing
(no, make that appalling)
because you prefer kissing
then stalling.
The Trouble with Elephants: a Word to the Wise
by Michael R. Burch
An elephant NEVER forgets,
which is why they don’t make the best pets:
Jumbo may well out-live you,
but he’ll NEVER forgive you
so you may as well save your regrets!
The Beat Goes On (and On and On and On ...)
by Michael R. Burch
Bored stiff by his board-stiff attempts
at “meter,” I crossly concluded
I’d use each iamb
in lieu of a lamb,
bedtimes when I’m under-quaaluded.
Cover Girl
by Michael R. Burch
Cunning
at sunning
and dunning,
the stunning
young woman’s in the running
to be found exposed on the cover
of some patronizing lover.
The cover is a bed cover, where the enterprising lass is about to be covered herself.
Paradoxical Ode to Antinatalism
by Michael R. Burch
A stay on love
would end death’s hateful sway,
someday.
A stay on love
would thus BE love,
I say.
Be true to love
and thus end death’s
fell sway!
Native American Prayer
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
Help us learn the lessons you have left us here
in every leaf and rock.
Old age, believe me, is a blessing. While it’s true you get gently shouldered off the stage, you’re awarded such a comfortable front row seat as spectator. — Confucius, loose translation by Michael R. Burch
"Lu Zhai" ("Deer Park")
by Wang Wei (699-759)
loose translation by Michael R. Burch
Uninhabited hills ...
except that now and again the silence is broken
by something like the sound of distant voices
as the sun's sinking rays illuminate lichens ...
Keywords: epigram, epigrams, couplet, couplets, touch, touching, life, death, love, kiss, kissing, hot air, volume, animal, animals, pets, elephants, lamb, lambs, sleep, dream, counting sheep, birth, procreation, antinatalism
Copyright © Michael Burch | Year Posted 2021
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