¡ ¿ é í ú ó á ü

                       
October 6, 1997 October 6, 1997                 February 6, 1999

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The Tin Ear Hymn
by Tom Cole

I drove my geese through a desert
Whose goslings whinnied like drunken horses
Voracious for voracity and greedy for greed.
I traipsed the inanity of Fosterian verse
And saw erosion level both hillocks, dells, and my intellect
In its quest, its ravenousness to brunch on my entrails
And I saw the canaries furiously flapping hither
Big, bold canaries like charging hippopotamuses
That spread unctuousness 
Upon the briar patch of my budding literacy
I felt the hippos lightly roosting
On my young green shoots
And their tiny, scratchy feet tickling my thighs!

IF ONE THINKS I'M UNFAIR, HERE'S THE ORIGINAL FROM THE BOOK:

Who has not heard and been deeply moved* by “The Old Man's Hymn”?
*MOVED TO WHAT? HURL? —TC

The Old Man's Hymn
by Frank Herbert

I drove my feet through a desert
Whose mirage fluttered like a host.
Voracious for glory, greedy for danger,
I roamed the horizons of al-Kulab, Watching time level mountains
In its search and its hunger for me.
And I saw the sparrows swiftly approach,
Bolder than the onrushing wolf.
They spread in the tree of my youth.
I heard the flock in my branches.
And was caught on their beaks and claws!
—from “Arrakis Awakening” by the Princess Irulan