Ode to Laze
Lazy, far too lazy, far too idle,
Don’t ask me.
Far too needful of relaxing,
Far too dodgeful of all taxing
Action that disrupts my lethargy.
I don’t run when I can sidle,
I make sloths look suicidal,
Vegetate with pride –
So don’t ask me.
Monotongue
My Latin may be lacking,
My Dutch may be unknown,
In Thai and Greek I cannot speak,
My English stands alone.
If I can’t win with Mandarin,
I still might cast my a spell –
I shall compete with language sweet,
And use my English well.
Pride & Vanity
If Gluttony is diff’rent enough from Avarice
To warrant a sin of its own,
Then how is Vanity denied ?
A fascination with one’s looks – why, surely this
Is sin enough to stand alone ?
Does it have no Pride ?
Everything from Shells
Downs go up and downs go down,
As wave on wave of frozen ocean
Built each ridge and vale and crown
With ev’ry ancient tide in motion.
Tiny creatures swarmed the sea
And dropped their tiny plates all over,
From Stonehenge to Normandy
As deeply as the Cliffs of Dover.
Singular alga sounds all wrong, as if the term has become strictly a mass noun.
The Hubble Kaleidoscope
So many stars ! And the colours too !
Blurring and sharping into our view.
But best look quick how these nebulas burn –
For sooner or later, the lens must turn.
January, January
Following the annual merry,
Who could welcome January ?
All this longest, poorest month,
We’re waiting for the Thirty-Oneth.
Subscription
To a gentleman of mechanistic means,
Who loves to read and read about ingenious machines:
I bring you word of piston, crank and drum –
And not just once or twice, but for a dozen times to come.
