Predelictions
       

The Baron is interested in dirigibles but not balloons;

the Baroness in infants, not toddlers;

the gardener in annuals, not perennials;

the cook in quiches, not soufflés;

the apothecary in chills, not tremors;

the arsonist in kerosene, not phosphorous:

the cartographer in the flat, not the foldable;

each cemetery resident
in this refrain:
Of all the people to be dead!
(no one actually knows the verses);

the lindens in burrowing, not flight
{though in fairness it must be stated that most of them experience their roots
as wings bearing them soundlessly through a grainy nethersky);

the universe in expanding—
no, contracting! —no, expanding!—
it can't decide

(but if there were some way to combine the two,
it would certainly be interested).

And what intrigues the cat?
Escaping through the front door
but not the back;

the courtyard is not in her territory.

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Copyright © 2017 Claire Bateman All rights reserved
from Scape
New Issues Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission