c.f. Robert Creeley's poem "If You," which begins,
If you were going to get a pet
what kind of animal would you get.
A soft-bodied dog, a hen--
feathers and fur to begin it again.
Someone out there must have the entire poem handy. It's in For Love, which
is buried in storage like almost everything else I own. It's a kind of
monstrous nursery rhyme.
Mark
At 10:29 PM 3/26/2005, you wrote:
>I found this in an old children's anthology (my favourite
>sort of poetry book!)
>
> The Dracula Vine
>
> People on the moon love a pet.
> But there's only one pet you can get -
> The Dracula Vine, a monstrous sight!
> But the moon-people like it all right.
>
> This pet looks like a climbing plant
> Made from parts of elephant.
> But each flower is a hippo's head
> Endlessly gaping to be fed.
>
> Now this pet eats everything -
> Whatever you can shovel or fling.
> It snaps up all your old cardboard boxes
> Your empty cans and your stuffed foxes.
>
> And wonder of wonders! The very flower
> You have given something to devour
> Sprouts on the spot a luscious kind of pear
> Without pips, and you can eat it there.
>
> So this is a useful pet
> And loyal if well-treat.
> But if you treat it badly
> It will wander off sadly
>
> Till somebody with more garbage than you
> Gives its flowers something to do.
>
> Ted Hughes
>
>------------------------------------------------------
>Janet Jackson <[log in to unmask]>
>Poems at Proximity:
>http://www.arach.net.au/~huxtable/janet/proximity.html
>------------------------------------------------------
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