from Spiking the Canon: A Poem

Ulysses
The critics give it ten out of ten,
the literary equivalent of Zen.
Is it Joyce’s folly
or his ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’?
Perhaps you should read it again.

Fiesta
Paris: where the mocking birds sing;
all that jazz and literary bling;
so brave and so gay,
watch them party away
̶ except Jake who can’t use his thing.

A railway carriage, late 1962
Said Larkin to Sylvia P:
“Death holds us both on his knee.
He says I’ve more time;
you’ll go in your prime,
but you’ll be more famous than me.”

Said Sylvia P in reply:
“Gee, Phil, here’s mud in your eye.
Thanks for the drink.
My stop, I think,
and my round in Hell by and by.”

Print