140 Shorties II: [More Verse Bits]

140 Shorties II [More Verse Bits] may be something of an added insistence, or infliction, in the world. The collection's essential motif, which is of a quasi-form that includes evidently interlocking aspects in terms of titles that often blatantly rhyme with each other, might seem hopelessly ingrown and juvenile. The ultimate effect, despite any apparent expressed and re-expressed sadness or misery, is likely to be a very playful back-and-forth sort of thing.

The individual versifications, which sometimes internally rhyme and sometimes don't rhyme, and which seldom evince anything very much like standard meter, are brief indeed-no longer, usually, than about 35 words. Here are a couple of samples.

WANDER
Wander about,
and imagine a doubt
evidently ready
to turn us unsteady.
At about-say-dawn
forest and lawn
present a new dew
akin to you.
Varied surmises
yield new surprises.

SQUANDER
Squander all money
provided by concerns
bigger than small.
Certain sums of
potency and power
are, likely, nothings
that nonetheless
may shimmer hugely.
To flip or slip
currency remains
very sporting.