Marcus Bales
Slump: A Villanelle for David Weinstock
"There's 91 words. It's all I have to say on the subject, so I could
call it done; any poet would. But it's a merely poem-sized piece
of prose, as useless as a four-inch length of half-inch rope."
That four-inch length of half-inch rope
Won't hitch a horse or hang a drover:
David Weinstock gave up hope.
It doesn't have the needed scope
To help him climb the cliffs of Dover,
That four-inch length of half-inch rope.
So now he's polishing his pope
At home with prose: the poet rover,
David Weinstock, gave up hope.
And what's at hand to loop the lope
Of verse around this treasure-trover?
That four-inch length of half-inch rope.
Is he alone in prosing? Nope –
Some guys just cannot see the clover.
David Weinstock gave up hope.
He left us with a sprightly trope
But still he left; he left us over
That four-inch length of half-inch rope.
David Weinstock gave up hope.
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