Class-less Verse
By David Glyn-Jones
I wanted to write a poem
and knowing that rhyme was verboten,
attempted to work in the modern style
but found I had forgotten
how to drop punctuation,
switch lines to and fro,
produce patterns of typescript
on papers of snow
and nowhere to take it
except CLASS!
So I gave in to my old, baser self
and dusted a rhyming book off of the shelf
And had much pleasure
measure by measure
in giving it sense
I knew `twas immense
`til I brought it
to CLASS.
So this offering I now with timidity proffer,
Ready to glare at each suppressed cougher
who disturbs my reading of ineffable rhyme,
who glances at clock
to check out the time
before release
from CLASS.
My colleagues are fair
though one tears her hair;
they lean back with a collective sigh,
suggest `just a tweak
where the rhyme seems to creak,`
then stare with re-liev-ed eye
at my papers so white a few moments before,
now smothered in inks scarcely dry.
There's black, blue, and red
but the one that I dread
is all green as proverbial grass.
It's the one from the boss of
the CLASS.
My papers are given
for me to take home
and read all the comments
attacking my pome.
I put them in piles
with accompanying smiles
and venom behind the white teeth,
then with wave almost cheerful
say `goodnight` fully fearful
that a colleague will further harass
the work that was done on my poem
in CLASS.
The top sheet returned seems to say `very witty`
but in letters so small
I can't read them at all.
My eye misinterprets;
Does it say `pretty`?
So I look much closer.
It's not really a poser.
My poem has only one word that describes it.
I read with a frown
the Class quality's down.
The word is not `witty`
nor is it `pretty`
but one I would never consider
for CLASS.
David Glyn-Jones is an actor with much experience in all forms of that
art. He started writing some years ago when on an out-of-town contract and the
days laid heavy (except for matinees). Since then he's won awards-- first prize
in an international short story competition from Toronto: honorary mentions for
short story and poetry in San Gabriel, Texas. He's had articles and stories
published and has a 100,000-word Elizabethan adventure novel looking for a
perceptive agent
