here’s another slippery limerick
for these hard times I have writ
but two so please my loyal fans
don’t clamor for more – this one
needs extra explanation – my
brother-in-law is a conductor
in this profession to be famous
you’re either a child prodigy or
ancient: Lew was neither but
like my dad needed a prostate
op – he chose to have it 1,000
miles from his job my sister
told me over the phone and
mindful of our dad’s poem said
“and DON’T write a limerick!” I
said I already had, but hadn’t –
laid the receiver down and wrote:
“A family member – not Ron –
Needed surgery on his baton.
We’ve received the directive
To call it “corrective”
And keep the conductor “anon.”
2020 Jacqueline Jackson
This article appears in Going nowhere.
