Hall Gardner

"Damn it all! All this our South stinks Peace!"

—Ezra Pound, Sestina Altaforte.

 

Hark ye! A Sestina for the Virtuoso! Slanted Eyes attack the Garage! 

Ring the Cry for battle! Sub-Urbans unite! You've nothing to lose but your garbage!

 (Old Ezra resurrected a man just like this one from Dante's Inferno. 

Do I dare judge! You bet I do!)

​

Damn it all, John! Help rid me of this gobbledygook!

These mangy curs attack with devious eyes-

I say to the garbage pails and stand! 

Defend our driveways! Onward—to the garage!!!

Hungry canines get out of hand; search for refuse,

then they defecate and spoil the land.

 

Do you wish litter tossed across your land?

Nay! So cease your saintly babbles. Don't refuse!

Our window-peering damsels are distressed; the garage

isn't a moat for canisters of gobbledygook.

The lids make perfect shields! Lance their eyes!

Dread not their cries! Damn you, John—you must stand!

 

 

Yeah I hear—the malted Clouds—almighty they stand

above pasteboard barracks on treeless land;

but no Holy Deluge will ever clean up this gobbledygook.

Show strength in battle! No reason to refuse!

Your shadow skulks 'neath my jeep in my garage:

Don't fear the Clouds' Wrath or dogs' metallic eyes!

 

Upon their gray scatological skulls, their eyes

plot yet another crusade 'gainst my garage.

Look! The carnal menace now huddles on your land;

the bastards sniff dappled bitches where they stand.

My innocent child detests such scents of gobbledygook

and the Heavens—wherefore an Answer do you refuse?!?!

 

No Answer! Out the poop scoop! Damn refuse!

Grrr! Even more intrude! More piles of gobbledygook!

John—how can you still trust their slanted eyes?!?!

These dust devils bluster 'cross your land,

their teeth yank trash while you decline to stand:

How dare you smirk when their Fury skips your garage!

 

Curs, fangs agape, now turn and raid your garage!

These mutts torment whether you seek Peace or Stand!

Like a slug you ought to suck your toppled refuse:

Yeah, let's fight—you Caca-face with peacenik eyes!

I need a good brawl; my soul abhors cacophonous land!

Combat we must—To spite all this gobbledygook!  

 

Sub-Urbans, Canines all stand outside the garage.

Ezra's Meta-physics refuse Amnesty to bloodshot eyes:

Seems Gobbledygook may for alway lay flush with the land.

 

—1972