"I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms"
----Wallace Stevens
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at Blackbird"
Joseph S. Salemi
Joseph S. Salemi has published four collections of
poetry: Formal Complaints, Nonsense Couplets, Masquerade,
and The Lilacs on Good Friday. His poems, essays,
translations, reviews, and scholarly articles have
appeared in
over one hundred journals world-wide. He is a winner of
The Classical and Modern Literature Award, an NEH scholar, and a
four-time
finalist for the Howard Nemerov Prize. He is also a
regular
contributor to the Expansive Poetry On-Line
website. He teaches in the Department of
Classical Languages at Hunter College in New York City.
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Jospeh S. Salemi
The Lure of a Uniform
Mars and Venus had a fling
Despite
the lady's wedding
ring.
They really clicked, for Mars supplied
The satisfaction
long denied
To Venus by her legal mate,
A crippled dwarf she'd grown
to hate.
Her husband caught them in flagrante
And began
to rave and rant. He
Brought a suit against the pair
But
neither of them seemed to care.
Venus liked what she was
getting--
Lots of heavy-duty petting.
And so, remember what I
toldja:
Broads
go for a firm-backed soldier.
note: This poem first appeared in Light Quarterly.
www.lucidrhythms.com
© 2007 David Landrum