My Imaginerie

By Ken Gosse

A Goosey Gander

a quip

What’s good for the gander is often a good gander at a goose.

Pig, Pig, Duck!

a senryu

Don’t raise either eye
looking for pie in the sky
once pigs learn to fly.

Boo Who!

a quatrain

A hippo doesn’t need to hide.
When watching them, you should decide
that if one might peek back at you,
don’t hang around—and don’t say “Boo!”

A Royal Appetite

a limerick

Nero’s Imperial Gator
was as large as a barge or a freighter
and when Nero’s wife
waded into its life,
the gator became gladiator.

No Little Monkeys

a fibonacci

Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed, paying no attention to what mother said,
one fell off and broke his head. Lying still, nearly dead,
a hand pulled him beneath the bed.
Nine little monkeys
having fun,
and soon
there
were

Wordsongs

a sonnet

Our language is absurd, without each word
we hear when we enjoy a singing bird;
those sounds which we can’t speak without a beak,
which leave us feeling awed and duly meek.

We imitate their voices with our song;
indeed, theirs is a sound for which we long
and yet, to them, our efforts all sound wrong—
cacophony of noises from our throng.

Perhaps, in time, instead of talk, we’ll sing,
expressing to each other everything
we hope and fear and dream, and every choice
we wish that we could make with our new voice.

Yet language must suffice until we do
while poetry and music help us through.

Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed verse using whimsy and humor in traditional meters. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, since then in The Offbeat, Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News Online, Sparks of Calliope and others. Raised in the Chicago, Illinois, suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years.