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Sunday, December 4, 2022

the curse


by horace p sternwall



once there was a guy named joe
who came out of nowhere and had nowhere to go
he was the victim of an ancient curse
which is the subject of this verse

his face was flat and his brow was low
his nose was crooked and his speech was slow
he was not what you would call
a beau to charm the belle of the ball

he wore a hat down over his face
of the ancient curse to hide the trace
passers by took curious note
of his heavy overcoat

the overcoat had pockets deep
in which a cat or dog could sleep
in which a gun or knife could slide
or even a molotov cocktail hide

what was joe’s problem? you ask
he had been set a task
by the dog whose dream humanity was
just because

there was a girl named jill
who lived high on a windy hill
she had a cat named bill and a watermelon patch named bob
because growing watermelons was a full time job

the dog, whose name was frank
put the watermelons in the bank
to save them for a rainy day
because that was just his way

joe was down on his luck
being passed by cars and trucks
on a cold and rainy day
on a windy highway

a truck driver named sid
wondered what joe did
to suffer such a fate
but sid was running late

and passed joe by
under the gray sky
and into a tunnel passed
as overhead lightning flashed


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