The Pathetic Fallacy Mitigated
A sonnet in near rhyme
The Pathetic Fallacy Mitigated
(An exercise in near-rhyme)
To liken buying blue-chip stocks
To squirrels hoarding nuts is bosh,
As wrong as claiming dogs can blush
Or offer paws for love, not snacks.
Admitted, songs a rooster pecks
On keys are not for muse but mash,
That trills emitted by a thrush
Aren’t made with Disney-puckered beaks
No, beasts and I are not alike,
But still it’s no quixotic quirk
To see a striving there and say
I’m glad they share with us this ark –
This leaky ark that seems to tack
Across a vast and lonely sea.
10
7
The Pathetic Fallacy Mitigated
(An exercise in near-rhyme)
To liken buying blue-chip stocks
To squirrels hoarding nuts is bosh,
As wrong as claiming dogs can blush
Or offer paws for love, not snacks.
Admitted, songs a rooster pecks
On keys are not for muse but mash,
That trills emitted by a thrush
Aren’t made with Disney-puckered beaks
No, beasts and I are not alike,
But still it’s no quixotic quirk
To see a striving there and say
I’m glad they share with us this ark –
This leaky ark that seems to tack
Across a vast and lonely sea.
10
7
The Pathetic Fallacy Revisited
I’ve seen near shore a sycophantic gull,
A cautious waiter at an osprey’s feast;
I’ve seen his cohorts find the beach too dull,
Their interest in the dumpsters much increased.
I’ve seen officious buzzards, robed in sable,
Convened pro tem at sudden death’s fruition,
A flattened armadillo as their table,
As well as corpus for their disquisition.
I’ve seen a gang of starlings raid a nest,
Then flee from those who’d loved the shattered egg;
I’ve seen them foul a copper hero’s crest,
And peck their brother who’d lost a leg . . .
And, Wordsworth, I must say with some despair
That I, like you, can see there’s pleasure there.
7
(1998)
Republished with permission of 'RE:AL," Vol. 21
