Addition By Subtraction?
Adopt, if you aspire to lasting fame
A hifalutin, hyphenated name
Like Rimsky-Korsakov or Chiang Kai-shek,
Love-Hewitt, Temple-Black, Toulouse-Lautrec,
Jay-Z, Abdul-Jabbar, or Sun Yat-Sen,
Ben-Gurion, Ice-T, Henin-Hardenne,
Ms. Zeta-Jones, Bourke-White, or Bulwer-Lytton,
Or Parker-Bowles (so many from Great Britain!),
Day-Lewis, Louis-Dreyfus, Newton-John,
Or even villains like Abdel-Rahman,
Their names embellished by a simple touch.
(Who knew a minus sign could add so much?!)
Advice for a Retiring Pontiff
Oh, fellow Pilgrim, seeking out seclusion
To nurture a more private holiness,
Forgive the paparazzi their intrusion:
You still are Holy Fodder to the press.
Bob McKenty has been misrepresenting himself as a “poet” for decades. He has recently come to the realization that he is actually an editorial cartoonist who can’t draw. His cartoons for the left brain have appeared in myriad publications, including The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Light Quarterly, a dozen anthologies, and a couple of textbooks. He won the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award back in the 20th century.