Variations

Variations

on both Kenneth Kock

and William Carlos Williams

1

I chopped at the neighbours’ feijoa hedge which he lets grow tall.

I am sorry, I have the worse view now

and he’ll have little fruit this summer.

2

I peered at the creeping ivy growing at the hedge roots and now climbing through the fence.

I ask no forgiveness . There was nothing left to do but take a leaf

out of Kenneth Kocks’ book and spray.

3

It cost me a lot of money to transport the cut branches but waste management obliged.

I’d cut a good two thirds of that overgrown hedge. It kept

the sun from my driveway; made the place cold.

4

Later that month the neighbour began throwing all his other yard waste where once

grew a hedge and creeping ivy. As summer wears on it smells the more. Forgive me,

I have no answer to this. I can no longer afford to take his waste to the dump.

 

Benita H. Kape (c) 23.11.2019

 

Imitation Practice

Imitation for Frank

For d/verse today we are to imitate a poet or a form. One form, two poets for me today. Apparently Kenneth Kock studied, and I believe parodied WCW, but other than this one I’ve yet to find another one of his. Not that I know much of Kenneth Kock. But who of us do not know the Plums in the fridge? I’ll give you the first stanza only of the Kenneth Kock parody which is titled “Variations of a Theme by William Carlos Williams.”

I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer. I am sorry, but it was morning, I had nothing to do and its wooden beams were so inviting.

I must say the hedge and the creeping ivy is inviting but I don’t really want to fall out with the neighbour. The hedge will be trimmed a little before Christmas.

 

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