Variations On the Malay Pantun: the Old Man and the Short Story -X-Xii

Variations on the Malay Pantun : The Old Man and the Short Story - X -XII - Continued for Georges VOISSET, the "Master Keeper-Nurturer" of the Malay Pantun (The pantun line varies between 8 and 12 syllables and is most commonly found in the anonymous quatrain form. Cf " Poietics of the Pantun ", pp. 49-67 in T. Wignesan. Sporadic Striving amid Echoed Voices, Mirrored Images and Stereotypic Posturing in Malaysian-Singaporean Literatures. Allahabad : Cyberwit, 2008, xix-244p.) X Go West on horseback and fire pistols point blank Union Pacific galloped at City Lights The Wench prefers red-hot fire not bullets blank Old Men let horses ride bareback on Wench sans tights XI Go West on quick-shunting trains and let fall frontiers Go East on horseback and churn Post-Colonial craze East or West the Wench licks the Master's rears and tears Not so the Youngster his Beat poems Old Men praise XII Shunt not trains which Kipling coupled lest they break wind Old Men returned from the East rest traumatic The Wench can take any Beat grind save the hind kind Not so the Youngster e'en pistol-packing mama flic © T. Wignesan - Paris, November 12, 2018