Daniel Galef: Elizabethan Clerihew One
Thomas Kyd
of sentiment was rid;
the props list for The Spanish Tragedy
doesn’t call for a lot of ornamental
and useless crud,
just a few hundred buckets of blood.
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Max Gutmann: The Love Song of Count Vronsky
Passionate-smashionate
Anna Karenina,
Don't let that railway guy's
Death spoil our joy.
Tolstoy's a master of
Verisimilitude;
Ham-handed symbols he'd
Never employ.
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Philip Dunkerley: Dream On
I rather fear I'm just a dilettante
And all my precious poems are only verse.
My brilliants are merely diamanté,
I rather fear I'm just a dilettante.
My politics have always been andante,
I've never been deprived – oh what a curse!
And so I fear I'm just a dilettante
And all my precious poems are only verse.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Cody Walker: Mad Optimist
He thought he saw the Pirate Ira
Grow a tad irate:
He looked again, and found it was
His Own Head, on a Plate.
“The fact that I can see the thing
Is odd, and kind of great.”
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Russel Winick: Two For One
The football coach resigned to chase some dream,
Thereby fulfilling one for his whole team.
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Clyde Always: I, Robot-Car
Nauferry Chauffery
Cruise, the autonomous
vehicles finally
offer a trip . . .
if they malfunction we’ll
incontrovertibly
lose only citizens
who never tip.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
L. A. Mereoie: Corvids On His Couch
An orni-psychiatrist’s glad
He can cure the neurotic and sad
So his just-published book’s
Full of once nervous rooks
And even some birds raven-mad.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Daniel Galef: Elizabethan Clerihew Two
Kit Marlowe
didn’t set the bar low:
besides a poet and playwright and
bar-room brawler and just a generally
very interesting guy,
he was also a spy.
