Your reader quakes like a ready reactor
Steady burn an incalculable factor
On your mark, we approach the next chapter

A quiet pen, without ambition
Keeps each plan from happy fruition
And pressure mounts, some new type of fission

Carve yourself out a space in time
Mark it well so it’s easy to find
History don’t repeat, but rhymes:

Solicitudes concede to style
Somebody just filed suit for libel
One more murmur to add to the pile

To be a made man is to be man-made
And so you dull your colors down a shade
The arsonists took over the fire brigade

Step outside of your burning home
Pavement stand, dial your phone
Ask whomever if We are Rome

The receiver will no doubt laugh a little
That is, if she caught the preceding riddle
Somewhere Nero bows the fiddle

Tell me something, if you please
About the world pregnant virgins see
Oblivious to a state emergency

A noble fourth, our D’Artangan
Has the sharpened instinct of a jealous man
Oh, you know him? And you’re a fan?

He’s wants a girl who drinks whisky and gin
Musket holstered, what a sin
Somebody asks, “What shape’s he in?”

One assumes he’s kind of tame
A lion, yes, but with a shampooed mane
He don’t play *****, but he plays the game

Shoes on, button up, wipe your glasses
Time to shake up contented masses
Donde hay educación, no hay distinción de clases