2 poems

by horace p sternwall

illustrations and introductory note by rhoda penmarq

some apology might be deemed necessary for the first poem, an early effort of horace p sternwall's. it was in extremely poor taste even in its own day, but is far more so in these more enlightened times. it was written in an attempt to tap the "real american vernacular", and as a reaction to his own period of infatuation with the poetry of lovecraft, robert e howard, and - most unfortunately - lord dunsany. how the attempt at "real american" speech compares to the similar efforts of his bete noir ezra pound, i leave to the reader to judge. but surely a little bad taste can be countenanced if it helps to free the poet from the thrall of lord dunsany? - rp walkin i saw your mom at fourth and main the clock struck twelve and it started to rain she didn't hurry to get indoors but kept on walkin with the rest of the _______ i kept on walkin, the rain didn't stop a few blocks down i saw your pop in front of the pet store where they sell canaries with his hand on his hip with the rest of the _______ i saw your girl friend sitting all alone eating horn and hardart out of house and home now maybe some people like it like that but she'll never get to heaven because she's too _______ i saw your grandpa, the poor old fool dressed in his coffin like he's ready for school the undertaker said, i don't know what he did but he's so ugly i can't close the _______ talkin i talked to the wind and the wind died down i talked to the trees and they all left town i talked to the stars and they faded away i talked to the night and it turned to day i talked to a flower on a windowsill i called it bob and it said, i'm bill i talked to a bottle lying in the gutter it looked up at me and its eyelids fluttered i talked to the drops that were still left in it they looked up at me and said, hold on a minute i talked to the glass when the bottle broke when it fell on the sidewalk through a cloud of smoke i talked to the smoke as it drifted away and then - i had nothing more to say