19-17

After champagne, a fizzy feeling comes

with a nod to Emily Dickinson

After champagne, a fizzy feeling comes—
A closed Door opens, the mind succumbs
to Joy. Its sober Angel banished for the night—
High spirits burst forth in blazing light.

The Heart, released from care, takes flight—
in Volatility.
No Dirge, no Woe can bring it down.
No purpose, plan,
or dull Responsibility.

This is the Hour of Exhilaration—
Cherished Abandon, if regretted later.
For now, Time is suspended, so—
First—Chill—then Pop—then the letting go—

by Antonia Clark

Read more Parody

Support


------------------------------------
Antonia Clark, a medical writer and editor, has also taught creative writing and manages an online poetry workshop. Her full-length poetry collection, Chameleon Moon (2014) will be reissued in 2019 by Bellevue Books. Toni lives in Vermont, loves wine, travel, and French café music. Contact antoniaclarkpoetry@gmail.com or visit antoniaclark.com.

19-16

To a Corporation Dying Young

with a nod to A. E. Housman

The time your IPO sold well
We cheered you at the closing bell.
Traders on the floor cried "buy"
And sent you to a record high.

Today, a Judge impounds your stock
And puts your assets on the block,
As from your officers you slip
Received into receivership.

Smart play, admitting to defeat,
Now that your specs are obsolete.
For early though a tech may please
It withers briefer than CDs.

Lawsuits bankruptcy will close
Cannot offend the public nose,
And creditors cannot assail
Those behind the corporate veil.

Now you will not join the dreck
Of those delisted from NASDAQ,
Another former brand of fame
And the value died before the name.

So get, before the news is out,
Another app that you can tout,
And make new promises to us:
Puffery in your prospectus.

And round you just as before
Will flock the suckers who want more,
Gentle sheep begging to be shorn
As trusting as the newly born.

by Chris Bullard

Read more Parody

Support


------------------------------------

Chris Bullard lives in Philadelphia, PA. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and his MFA from Wilkes University. Finishing Line Press published his poetry chapbook, Leviathan, in 2016. Kattywompus Press published High Pulp, a collection of his flash fiction, in 2017. His work has appeared in publications such as 32 Poems, Green Mountains Review, Rattle, Pleiades, River Styx, and Nimrod.

19-15

Dover Peach

with a thumb to the nose toward Matthew Arnold and Anthony Hecht

They never told you my name
when they invaded the anthologies.

Doing me such favors, those two:
a weekend trip to the coast,
a bottle of the wrong perfume.
A girl does her best,
but to go down in history invisibly,
without even a name, is too much.

There was never a question
of a fruitful relationship—
and all that complaining

about the world in general
and a few things in particular
war and suffering and all that
as though Matthew thought of them first.

Tony was no better, expecting me
to drop everything and start cooking
when he showed up like a dog on the doorstep
needing my life to juice his own ambition.

The nerve to claim my reality
without asking. You'll be glad to know
I've given up poets to buy
my own ticket, dance my dance,
walk past their erection, a fence

they built themselves. I wrote on it:
For a good time call Matt or Tony
555-3825.

by Sandra Soli

Read more Parody

Support


------------------------------------

Sandra Soli, writer/editor in Edmond, Oklahoma, enjoys wordplay and terrible puns. Her poems, articles, and short fiction have appeared widely in journals, humanities magazines, and anthologies that benefit the homeless. Author of two award-winning poetry chapbooks and teaching artist, Sandy survived childhood in a war zone and is completing a poetry collection based on that experience.