Blank Verse

[milo]

To write in blank verse isn’t very hard --
in fact it’s quite the opposite, a trip
through five iambs without the need to rhyme,
a natural progression of the beat.

The easiest of meters in the tongue
of Milton, Pope and Shakespeare – just a few
who didn’t think it tricky to contrive
da dum da dum times five in ev’ry line.

No need to overcomplicate this scheme,
it’s not the cryptic crossword in The Times,
just pentametric plainness, row on row --
remember though, there can’t be any rhymes.

oh bugger

I'm gonna' tell you of the other night -
I'm drinking in the pub with my best mates
we're playing darts when Mickey throws 1 wild
and it flies straight into poor Tommy's eye.

"Now that is pretty bad," you're gonna say
but hold your tongue my story isn't done
before the night has passed someone will die
but there's another thing that is much worse.

So, Tommy's eye starts gushing viscous fluid -
there's blood and puss that's oozing through his fingers
he's crying and he's screaming like a madman
and then, half-blind he tumbles out the door

and stumbles, frog-walks drunk, into the street.
A taxi cab that cannot swerve or stop
comes smashing through and knocks blind Tommy's head
right off his shoulders, sends it rolling down

an alley where it stops, still spurting blood
and Tommy's moans of pain. His one good eye
is fixed upon a page (I told you it gets worse)
it seems Leanne has written in blank verse!