Poems of the Week

Florida Fail

by Iris Herriot

“Two US women pose as ‘grannies’ to skip vaccine queue
Two women aged 34 and 44 attempted to pass as over-65s in Florida in order to jump the queue
and receive their Covid-19 vaccines ahead of schedule, authorities have said.”

BBC News

Desiring to avoid the queue,
We posed as grannies (as you do)
And trotted to the interview
To get our second jab (of two),
But up the whole thing sadly blew:
Our smart disguise was soon seen through,
And Florida now wants to sue.
Was it our gait? Our choice of shoe?
Oh no. Just blame two youngsters who
Forgot how thickly grans accrue
Round here. They must have seen a few,
If not a veritable slew,
Those vaccine guys! They know. They knew.

New York Dodger

by Nora Jay

“Dominion hired the process servers to hand Giuliani its 107-page lawsuit after [he] ignored
requests to simply accept it via email …
A doorman … locked the door to the building whenever the former mayor entered the lobby. …
[D]uring a nasty winter storm …, the doorman … waved to a Ford Explorer SUV parked down the
street. Giuliani got in the passenger seat and closed the SUV door as a process server lunged
forward with a bag full of documents. …
At one point, his driver went through a red light while dodging the process server, according to
the account.”
Daily News

I would not, could not from my doorman.
I would not, could not from George Foreman.
I would not, could not on the Net
I would not, and I have not yet!
I would not in an SUV:
I would not let my driver be;
I would not stop for snow or night.
I would not for a traffic light.
These writs are just a sham! I am
Not in a jam. Nor on the lam.

Blue Comes Through

by Thomas DeFreitas

As Lone Star folks are frozen,
Ol’ Teddy hits Cancún.
(Some wish that he had chosen
To fly straight to the moon.)

Then AOC, Bronx lefty,
Is roused to act and raise
A sum of dough (quite hefty!)
In just a few brief days.

While Cruz says “see ya later,”
Deciding to vacate,
The bluest legislator
Comes through for a red state.

The Do-Not-Invite List

by Stephen Pisani

“Ted Cruz Calls Cancun Group Text Leaker ‘Nasty’: ‘Just Don’t Be A**holes’”
HuffPost

Dear “friend” who took our private chat
and leaked it to the Times,
we now consider you a rat,
and won’t forgive these crimes.

My wife is pissed, I’ll have you know.
Our kids can’t keep from crying.
I’ll have to go on Fox news shows,
convince them all you’re lying.

Do you possess no sense of shame,
no shred of self-respect?
When we flee from a hurricane,
you shan’t receive a text.

What Falls from Washed Hair

by J.P. Celia

(In honor of Women’s History Month, which begins today)

Washing my hair, I dream of barefoot girls
Shampooing theirs, and what assortment falls
From female heads performing expert twirls
Within sea-themed and fogging bathroom walls.

At first must drop a very simple thing:
A ribbon left unscrambled in the back,
Which, with warm water, slides off like a ring
And hits the tub, though hits without a smack.

Up next come objects far more weighty, weird.
The coins and stubs created in the flight
From home to work, and which had disappeared
In chignon buns baked golden-brown and light.

Next teacups (dozens), novels, one spiked heel,
Are loosened where they nestled and set free
To land on the enameled concave steel
As wide and buoyant as a manatee.

And last come tumbling from each soapy crown,
Those silly boys, those fatal mismatched men,
Who’d disappointed, or who’d turned them down,
And must be washed out every now and then.

Snow Joke

by Iris Herriot

“Ukraine man invents murder in attempt to get police to clear snow
Man unhappy with state of his road told officers they would have to come in a snowplough
to arrest him”
The Guardian

To get a plow to clear the snow
I claimed I’d killed my stepdad. So?
Which really do you think absurder:
To choke in snow or fake a murder?

Secession … but not just yet

by Brian Allgar

“Texas Republicans Beg Biden for Help Weeks After Endorsing Secession Bill …
[in] response to a huge winter storm that hit Texas this past weekend,
causing traffic accidents and power outages”
—ExtraNewsfeed

Hey, let’s Make Texas Great Again! No need
For federal Government—we’ll just secede.
No stinking Socialists for us! … Oh, wait—
We need a massive handout for our State.

Ground Control to Senator Cruz

by Dan Campion

“Ted Cruz: Trip To Cancun Was ‘Obviously A Mistake’”
Deadline

“NASA’s Perseverance rover nails Mars landing, sends first images of Jezero Crater”
CNET

Ted! Should’ve found your way to Mars.
Why tick off one Red State,
When you could cruise, in little cars,
A whole Red Planet, mate?

Boyd Up

by Nora Jay

“A Texas mayor has resigned after telling residents of his city to ‘Get off your ass and take care of your own family!’ in the face of a devastating once-in-a-generation winter storm that has killed more than 20 people across the country and left millions without power in the state. …
Amid widespread outrage Boyd has now apologized resigned and issued a more contrite statement …
‘Please understand, if I had it to do over again, I would have just kept my words to myself and if I did say them I would have used better wording and been more descriptive,’ said Boyd.”
The Guardian

Please understand, could I now choose,
There’s better wording I would use.
The reason for this press conniption
Was clearly absence of description.
So when I said “Get off your ass,”
I meant to add “low class” and “crass”;
And by “your family,” I meant:
“Those dumb, spoiled boobs who owe you rent.”

Cuomorbidity

by Alex Steelsmith

“De Blasio has called for a ‘full account of what happened’… the hidden data is ‘very troubling.’”
Newsweek

Fumbledy bumbledy,
Cuomo the Governor
didn’t let data from
nursing homes show;

Mayor de Blasio
opportunistically
questions the tenuous
Status of Cuo.

Lament for Rush Limbaugh?

by Bruce Bennett

He will be missed by some. What? You want more?
Don’t push it. Even this much is a chore.

Ytt Colour

by Julia Griffin

“For the First Time in 200 Years, a New Blue Pigment Is Up for Sale
… Named after its chemical components of yttrium, indium and manganese oxides,
YInMn [pronounced ‘Yin Min’] absorbs red and green wavelengths
while reflecting blue wavelengths to produce a bright blue color.”

Smithsonian Magazine

(After Robert Frost)

Why make so much of pigmentary blue,
Fine ground-up lapis, woadish indigo,
Poisonous cobalt, smalt’s translucent glow,
Turquoise and zaffre (relatively new)?

Earth’s stuffed with proto-blue—the whole shebang
Of yttrium + indium (called YIn)
+ mounds of manganese! Come on, dig in:
YInMn is here, and waiting for MnYAng.

Zorro Reflects (Or: The Retirement of Don Diego de la Vega)

by J.P. Celia

“Zorro reboot series in the works”
Variety

Inside his hacienda,
The grizzled hero sits,
His heart’s impedimenta
Depressing him in fits.

The California weather
Creates a promised land,
Though pouting in his leather
He senses only sand.

The fiendish caballeros,
They can no longer harm
The innocent rancheros,
Half-starving on the farm.

A one-time oligarchy,
El pueblo now control
The government’s hierarchy,
With libertad its goal.

Yet now the former victims
Have morphed into the brutes
He ousted, and their dictums
Are backed up with their boots.

He fought with the assumption
That evil was a class,
Who hoarded all corruption.
But now he’s learned, alas,

That every group is evil,
That every man is prone
To whims that are medieval,
Which can’t be overthrown.

Mierda!” he pronounces
And catapults his blade,
Then bitterly renounces
The character he played.

He will not ride tomorrow.
He’ll weep and fill his flask,
Then light a fat cigarro
And burn his famous mask.

Flippantithesis

by Ruth S. Baker

“End of Neanderthals linked to flip of Earth’s magnetic poles, study suggests
Event 42,000 years ago combined with fall in solar activity potentially cataclysmic, researchers say … another flip could be on the cards.”
The Guardian

One flip of Earth’s magnetic poles,
Combined with an inactive sun,
And those Neanderthals, poor souls,
Were cataclysmically done.

Both sun and man look brighter now
(It’s shining; we’ve invented script)
But still researchers know not how
To keep the north and south unflipped.

Ferret Fever

by Claudia Gary

“A nasal spray that blocks the absorption of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has completely protected ferrets it was tested on”
The New York Times

(with apologies to Robert Herrick)

Whenas in labs our Ferret goes,
our scientists are bold.
The sweetness of our Ferret’s nose
cannot be oversold.
If lipopeptide spray prevents
COVID from taking hold,
what’s next for Ferret—a defense
against the common cold?