n Earnest's evocative Emporium
there's odds ends a whatnot or two
or they can do a brickbat
novelty knick-knack bugaboo
all nice and bright as a button
altho' they're twice as kitsch
odd oddments and sodments
curious curios contained in a niche
as well as folderol and bric-a-brac
brought from across the border
but the house specialty is really
antiques made to order
Curiosity kills the cat,
of a friend who’s a spoilt little brat,
Though the saying spreads through chat,
a whisper of this and that.
But it isn’t a mere brickbat,
that’s between a cat and a rat,
Though fierce, just like their combat,
when they twirl like an acrobat.
It’s a crash-land in a sabbat,
on a strangely shimmering mat,
Where witches don their funny hat,
and chant beneath the moonlit flat.
In the confusion the cat sat,
beside a wide-eyed, curious bat,
A witch drew them into a spat,
and sent them down with a splat.
CHROMATIC ABERRATION
There’s another epidemic
Now infecting many a mind
With a source hap academic
Bending thought made colour blind
Viewpoints Green colour of nature
Must be blest, no reservation
Though they hide a scarlet tincture
Mask a socialist dictation
Black Lives Matter is respected
Cross the world now near and far
With its red heart unsuspected
Though it beats a Marxist bar
Red can only be rejected
When it’s on a MAGA hat
Some may then try to correct it
With a sneer and thrown brickbat
Pink once tint of ladies choosing
Air of tender love and grace
Now viragos, furies, shrews in
Street protest wave in-your-face
So-called ‘Anti-Fascist’ hosts
Indulge in Fascist style attack
Unaware that irony gross
Mocks their choice to dress in black!
Chromatic aberrations shifts
Dismay this old curmudgeon’s eye
Yet his spirits still feel lifts
To see red white and blue flown high
Machine Guns
Allied forces lie down flat.
Strong, brave, ready for combat.
Hush. Hear that. Rat-a-tat-tat.
Armed, they work without brickbat.
Dug-in. Stressed in metal hat.
Distant screams Rat-a-tat-tat.
© Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
January 26, 2010
Poetic form: Englyn
Poetic Form: Englyn Milwr (The Soldier’s Englyn) REFERENCES follow:
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/zoebrigley/entry/the_measures_of_1/
http://jpicforum.info/types-of-poetry/englyn-milwr-680.html
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