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Shall I compare thee to a slack-jawed moose?
A tundra beast whose brain conceives no law
beyond the skull's dimensions, an obtuse
and noble remnant of an age too raw
and vital for the likes of modern eyes,
the eyes too weak to see this sharpened knife
dissevering your torso from what lies
beneath. But dignity well known in life
will fail to save you from a death now spent
adorning brick above my fire and logs.
A creature bred for vigor never meant
to hang immobile over sleeping dogs.
But brief and dashing lives all lived through skin
must compensate for hallow space within.
This is such a good combination of funny and a little shocking. The images I get as I read it gross me out a little, but at the same time it's funny to read, particularly the first line. Great parody!
ReplyDeleteYour word choice is excellent: "dissevering, adorning, hang immobile." I personally would have punctuated lines 2-7 differently, but poems are tricky because I feel like poets have so much leeway concerning how to punctuate. I would have added a semicolon or something.
ReplyDeleteYou used enjambment really well, and I find it super humorous that you are comparing someone to a "slack-jawed moose." It leaves me trying to imagine who you might say this to, and how insulted they might be because you described the negative experiences of a majestic creature.
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