Poems

Three Epigrams

by Allan Brown

CREATION 101

D'you hear the one about old Adonai?

Took him six days, even and morn, to make
a world and then on the seventh he fell
asleep, and ol' Snake Eyes rolled it away!

SOMEWHAT HORATIAN

—Do not double tempt, kid,
with your Persiantype niceties;
from science to park
I am established already;
and thence to start in a word
or three of "Here is Where?"
and yes enough
—For
I have know it all and   ready,
known it all, and then a pen
from springaling to summer,
full to winter, parts my fall.

THE FAUSTIAN DILEMMA

How life is everyfull and then
it isn't as it says in Faust,
which I don't understand, so
I consult my friend the good angel
who consults his parallel text edition
(with critical apparatus) of both
the play and the (other) angel, of course,
but they don't understand it either.

This poem originally appeared in Canadian Literature #197 (Summer 2008), Predators and Gardens. (pg. 41)