In Lipogram Land

Vowl was unusually fraught

So Gadsby said “Both of us ought

To stop this Oulipian fad,

It's driving us thoroughly mad”,

To which Vowl said, “Why d'you think that?

Indigo platypus drowning a cat”.

SRP

Beyond the call of duty

What is “beyond the call of duty”?

I imagine clean air, hard stone and silence,

A climbing path that never ends

And the will to take it.

SRP

The Gold Clock

“Well, George,” announced the young man

“I'd like to take this opportunity to say”

And then he said. And George listened

To talk of duty, thanks, token of recognition

“for twenty-five years' loyal-”

What? Twenty-five? It was forty-four!

Would have been forty-eight if it wasn't for the war.

George looked up, but his tightening throat

Censored protestation.

Someone else intervened,

The young man apologised and explained

How he had got his retirees mixed up

And George saw what had happened,

Saw everything that had ever happened,

And reassured the young man

That it can happen to anyone.

SRP