The Virginia Quarterly Review "The Mutable Past," a memoir collected in FANTASEERS, A BOOK OF MEMORIES by Lewis Turco of growing up in the 1950s in Meriden, Connecticut, (Scotsdale AZ: Star Cloud Press, 2005).
The Tower Journal Two short stories, "The Demon in the Tree" and "The Substitute Wife," in the spring 2009 issue of Tower Journal.
The Tower Journal A story, "The Car," and two poems, "Fathers" and "Year by Year"
The Tower Journal Memoir, “Pookah, The Greatest Cat in the History of the World,” Spring-Summer 2010.
The Michigan Quarterly Review This is the first terzanelle ever published, in "The Michigan Quarterly Review" in 1965. It has been gathered in THE COLLECTED LYRICS OF LEWIS TURCO/WESLI COURT, 1953-2004 (www.StarCloudPress.com).
The Gawain Poet An essay on the putative medieval author of "Gawain and the Green Knight" in the summer 2010 issue of Per Contra.
The Black Death Bryan Bridges' interesting article on the villanelle and the terzanelle with "The Black Death" by Wesli Court as an example of the latter.
Seniority: Six Shakespearian Tailgaters This is a part of a series called "Gnomes" others of which have appeared in TRINACRIA and on the blog POETICS AND RUMINATIONS.
Reinventing the Wheel, Modern Poems in Classical Meters An essay with illustrations of poems written in classical meters together with a "Table of Meters" and "The Rules of Scansion" in the Summer 2009 issue of Trellis Magazine
Miss Pussy's Parlor Songs, Part Sixteen
XMAS TAX
Xmas is coming,
The rich are getting fat,
Please put a dollar
In Donald Trump’s hat;
If you haven’t got a dollar
A billion ought to do —
If you do not have a billion,
Well boo-hoo-hoo,
How sad for you!
WHENCE
Whence cometh Melania?
Is it from Albania?
No, from someplace greenier --
A valley in Slovenia!
Is Donald Trump her senior?
Yes, and he's much meanier.
THE AXE
Axe me no questions
And I'll tell you lies:
We're cutting your taxes
And, quick as time flies,
Your tax cuts expire,
But not those we gave
To the big corporations,
And that's why we rave.
You get what you pay for,
So you're getting nothing,
No roads, rails or bridges,
And that's really something
To put in the books
For following ages --
Local taxes go up
And down go your wages!
Merry Xmas, dear neighbor,
Happy New Year, you chump!
Get up on your roof, and
Get ready to jump!
CHALOO, CHALLAY!
Chaloo challay,
It’s Xmas Day,
And Donald Trump
Says we can say
“Merry Christmas”
once again —
Oh, Happy Day,
Chaloo challay
Donnie Trump
Says it’s okay!
He makes me feel
So goddam gay!
From MISS PUSSY'S PARLOR SONGS by Claudette McFang.
KUDOS FOR CLAUDETTE
Claudette McFang has passed the test:
this pussycat can say it best!
Congress, the White House, the boudoir—
Claudette knows where the stories are
and tells them as they should be told.
Her facts are right, her lingo’s bold,
and she defends the righteous cause
with sharp and deadly verbal claws!
Rhina P. Espaillat
December 28, 2017 in Accentual-syllabic verse, American History, Americana, Commentary, Criticism, Epigrams, Humor & Satire, Literature, Nursery Rhymes, Poems, Poetry, Politics, Punography, Satire | Permalink
Tags: Claudette McFang, Donald Trump, Miss Pussy, nursery rhymes, Parlor Songs