Short Poems

The needles of the pine,
All to the west incline.

Wait not till I invite thee, but observe
I'm glad to see thee when thou com'st.

Yon bird is strong to fly —
How straight the balanced pinions scoop
Twin scimitars, that carve the cloudy group,
Or, rigid as a die,
Print their sad cypher on the polished sky!

Zeenty, peenty, heathery, mithery,
Bumfy, leery, over, Dover,
Saw the King of Heazle Peazle
Jumping o'er Jerusalem Dyke:
Black fish, white trout
Eerie, ourie, you're out.

Your face reveals a down so light
A breeze might steal it, or a breath;
Soft as a quince's bloom that might
Find in a finger's touch its death.
Five kisses--and your face is cleared
While mine has grown another beard.

TO A LIVING AUTHOR .

Your Comedy I've read, my Friend,
And like the half you pilfer'd best;
But sure the Piece you yet may mend? —
Take courage Man, and steal the rest.

Young Mrs. Snooks was sick of sex
But Mr. Snooks was soaked in it.

Wherever he beheld a hole
He took a stick and poked in it.

He even tried to frig a frog
But fell in the pond and croaked in it.

*****You were wearing your Edgar Allen Poe printed cotton blouse.

In each divided-up square of the blouse was a picture of Edgar Allan Poe.

*****In the yard across the street we saw a snowman holding a garbage can lid. smashed into a likeness of the mad English king, George the Third.

You told me, Maro, whilst you live
You'd not a single penny give,
But that, whene'er you chanct to die,
You'd leave a handsome legacy:
You must be mad beyond redress,
If my next wish you cannot guess!

A bullock greedy for a feast of corn
You never can prevent;
A wife who wants her lord to wear a horn
You never can prevent;
A man who loves to gamble night and morn
You never can prevent;
And blemishes that with a man are born
You never can prevent.