I liked growing.
That was nice.
The leaves were soft
The sun was hot.
I was warm and red and round
Then someone dropped me in a pot.

Being a strawberry isn’t all pleasing.
This morning they put me in ice cream.
I’m freezing.

--Karla Kuskin, in Any Me I Want to Be

___________________________________

Do You Know My Name?

Do you know my name?                                My foolish self --
Think of straw turned to gold.                     a girl
In this story.                                                    by greed
I am                                                                  betrayed.
famous                                                             I am liked,
but not                                                             but not
liked.                                                                famous.
I am                                                                  I am
betrayed                                                           in this story.
by greed,                                                          Think of straw turned to gold. 
a girl,                                                                Do you know my name?
my foolish self.

 

                            from Mirror, Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, by Marilyn Singer

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Some Anti-Limericks

There was a young man from Japan

Whose limericks never would scan.

When asked why this was,

He replied "It's because

I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as ever possibly I can."

 

There was a young lad of Honolulu
Whose limericks stopped at line two.

 

A decrepit old gas man named Peter,
While hunting around for the meter,
Touched a leak with his light.
He arose out of sight,
And, as anyone can see by reading this, he also destroyed the meter.