An Academic Gown
An academic’s wardrobe isn’t grand.
No prof can think when collared with a tie,
And fancy shoes get whitened where you stand—
Chalk lays down trails where later you walk by!
At owning brand new suits a prof just scoffs:
Dry-cleaning bills would stretch beyond your means,
Endangering your drinking fund, so profs
Most often don a T-shirt and wear jeans.
It’s only when you hood your PhDs,
Collegiate dress code rules exact their tolls:
Grads lining up to walk for their degrees—
Or deans—might spot your only suit’s moth holes! …
Wise profs—dressed down, but fearing dressing-down—
Need overalls: an academic gown!
Lions And Tigers?
Large cats are now so scattered in the wild,
In searching for a conspecific date,
One’s quest may fail … Then should the stripy-styled
Not contemplate the stripeless for a mate?
Since ligon cubs or tigons may result
And backcrossed females may have offspring too,
New terms may soon be needed for adult
Descendants of these hybrids in the zoo:
Tiligers and titigons, if the dad
Is tiger, and liliger or liti-
Gon, if he’s lion—terms to which we add
Extensions … If descendants multiply
Repeatedly, then in some future year,
Some lititititigons may appear!