Alas! Poor Percy, his pointing days gone,

Along with the porcelain he knew;

Now, it's quick, easy and painless, to

Shake young Stanley at the stainless. 

(24 December 1988. Wrote this after tossing and turning all night lamenting my breakup with Rita A.)

Christmas night comes once a year 

and with its pass, this heartfelt tear

Turning against a cold, hard pillow 

and my soul this night bleeds, with sorrow;

'And should You sleep alone this night

clutching the blankets close and tight

May you toss, with unending restlessness

for naught can dull your searing bitterness

that drove a shattering wedge between us.

May you dream, Me...

                                Merry Bloody Christmas. 

(1988, parody of a Road Safety Joke.)

It was a crystal crisp, full-moon light brigh

evening, at a time when no shadows

were cast upon the land.

A man was walking

A man of import

A man was talking

A man of warning

Enlightening all

people to a point

of safety at night!

(He was a member of the Road Saefty Council)

He wore a white suit, white shoes, and white hat

at night, an is no longer with us now!

It was on a crystal crisp, full-moon light bright

evening when this man was run down

by a... snow plow. 

* apologies to S.T.Colleridge

(1987. becuase prior to this I didn't like the original, so I thought to parody it.) 

In Reservoir did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure dome deliver

Where Darabin, the muddy creak ran

By tunnels made by man

     down to the Yarra River.

So twice five 'yards₁ of fractured ground

With sheds and fences somewhere around:

And there were gardns limp and rum,

Where blossomed a few disesiduous trees;

Antd there were weeks and a baby plum,

Shading plots of beans and peas.

But oh! that shallow romancesless gully which slanted

Down the scrochéd hill across a blackened cover!

A savage place! as unholy and bewitched

As eer beneath a waxing moon was haunted

By a girl whispering for her truent-lover!

1. 'yards = backyards, land behind a house encircled by a fence indicating it belongs to the house.