Ken Gosse

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An Abecedarian in Limerick

Being truly a difficult task,
causing headaches beyond what I ask,
do I take up this cause—
even though I first pause
for a moment, to take up a flask?

Glass being drained, I’ll go on.
Heaven knows, I’ll work dusk until dawn
in difficult weather and
journeys through heather though
knowing most readers will yawn.

Let me see, now. Just where should I start?
Many think that’s the hard part of art.
Never start at the end,
otherwise, my dear friend,
perhaps you’ll look back and lose heart.

Quixotic pursuit of this query
rises well past the extraordinary.
Some may think I’m cool,
though others, a fool;
undignified views, quite contrary.

Very hard to create a good ending
when the words dictionaries are sending
x-actly must match
your choice rhymes, which dispatch
zero tolerance for your amending.

Ken Gosse prefers using simple language and traditional meter and rhyme in verses with whimsy and humor. First published in The First Literary Review–East in November, 2016, his poems are also in The Offbeat, Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News, and other publications. Raised in the Chicago suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.