Four Snortets, A Parody With Fondness For Thomas Stearns Eliot
Mister, or Sir, rather, Thomas Sterns Eliot left his evening door,
late middle age, having lived into the postmodern 'new' millennium,
having again reiterated his propounded new diet whereupon
wandering on a deserted shore near mumbling twilight one might
meet a most inarticulate soft peach or unutterable yet edible Christ,
or a close match, a little kidding, upon which we may, if we dare,
reiterative quartet playing plaintive though palliatively, dine four
squarely in Piccadilly sempiternal before getting sodden after
sundown, preferably on Friday, which is a good time to do it, to eat
and drink again, remembering that it is end of the week, out of the tube And who cares? or let us forget. Teach us, O Mannered One,
to care and not to care having lost muscle plasticity which a
good pair of dark socks can cover what was once pliant and
supple, now a gruesome obscenity. Have I overstated?
Shall I overstate again? Shall I? No? not now? how all things
crumble, even a souffle caves from expectation and thus we
wait with dope, we wait without hope for hope would be hope
for another line, and yet another, and we are reduced to shouting
repeatedly shouting, Muther f*cker! Muther f*cker, overwrought,
in the stall, temperatures and ovens not withstanding. which, too, porcelain, is waiting to be cleaned,
and all things shall be cleaned, but only after
midnight for I shall have left by then having forsaken
all hope and the sink where I have discreetly washed
my skivvies in order to go home again, return
uncomfortable, without support, to throw them in the
turning dryer to dry again for I do not hope to return
again until next week to probably reenact the same
scene again, (bringing another pair of skivvies with
just in case) , the patient server, harassed, must add
and re-add my check again and again because I am
And all is vanity amongst these my ruins.
And Sweeney, whoever he may be,
tidies up neurotically, gin on his breath
for he is bored unto death but awaits
daily the post for possible liberty
which he once took with a wealthy
widow who mistook him for someone
else. The scar forever reminds of
dumb lusts, and dumber luck, for loot,
never dreaming she was a black belt.
His teeth, now wooden, remind him to
be mindful of the good against all wants,
and so he sits, wise, chaste, chiseled
in the ruins reading Beckett, but that is
another story written in the stars Centauricwe will pack our Preparations H, grateful always,
no longer walking funnily sideways in the garden,
in the wandering streets, the half retreating steps,
without itch or burn, the tissue roll turned slowly
with pleasure not to double, or even triple, ply.
We cleanse what cannot be seen but only reckoned
with, and sniffed, pull at our chains and buckles,
then pick our pace doubly up for we are late yet
again for work for one because we think too too
much and get caught up in cadences but
never mind for reality is (whatever, BTW, 'ennui' is, but it is fun to say and
in this aesthetic some other language needs to be
gratuitously writ to make the poetic voice more valid
if Americans attempt to art, 'writ' is a good word, too,
let me then write it repeatedly: writ writ writ, to wit)
begins yet again, o Ariadne, obsessive compulsive
to the end, Nothing to be read here, now, in Merry Old,
but old age, varicose. the blank stare dreaming
comatose, of repressed rage, still pissed at the boss,
shamed of ankles, the chittering twats in mulberry bush
near home, following, following