Poem of the Week
September 13, 2004
A mangy coyote, I, and City park, my pattered home ;
Ancestry ? Yes, a few---I'll tell the world they founded
Rome ;
And if you're interested in my genealogy,
Just look my grandad up in Horace---"Integer Vitae;"
Or browse in Dante's stuff, or maybe Little Riding
Hood,
But don't go far, because our reputation is not good.
You see, about the time way back when centuries
began,
In China land lived Pao-tse, a gloomy courtesan,
And old Yow-Wang, the emperor, did many hours
beguile
Attempting stunts to see if he could make the lady
smile---
And finally he turned the trick, her laughter shook the
ground,
By shouting "Wolf," when really there weren't any
wolves around ;
In later days the yarn was told about a shepherd lad,
But by that time our 'scutcheon was all blotted to the
bad.
But that's an Asiatic tale and something of a bore,
Here in the West my chronicles are colorful galore.
My father was the burning sun, my mother was the
moon,
And under a green toahafs bush at high Apache noon,
With all the chieftains sitting around and feather flags
unfurled,
I made a notable debut into Apache world.
And when the great flood came and not a soul was to
survive,
I came out yelping lustily and very much alive.
I once had magic powers to cause strange sickness in
a child,
And also had a rating as the Touchstone of the wild.
--Thomas Hornsby Ferril
Lines 1 - 36. Reprinted from Anthology of Newspaper Verse for 1921.
Edited by Franklyn Pierre Davis, Enid, Oklahoma, MCMXXII.
to be completed 9/20/04