Sunday, January 15, 2006

Jaast-e ...


BLACKBALLED

Do not harm the heffalump;

he would not eat your rose.

Observe him as he peels a tree

- such delicacy -

partakes of nuncheon, and goes

slow thunder-rolling through the bamboo clumps

(wistful Chinese bamboo-clumps,

visual haiku bamboo-clumps)

complements their poetry

with his sev’ral tons of prose.



Examine now the heffalump’s

high brow and huge physique.

Does he know the Rule of Three ?

Are his declensions weak?

Can he use

those massive thews, are wind and limb quite sound ?

Why does he freight

his awesome weight with gut so near the ground ?

Can he conjure up scenes of mirth,

an elephantine Life Divine, gigantic chic ?

Can he move his ponderous girth

in light-foot waltzes by the hour ?

Can his forehead wide, his wrinkled hide,

cloak the oppressive sense of power ?

(By one fairly common measure

of greatness, worth and such-like things,

his heffalumpen stature grows : out-topping Caesar

and the sorry Sphinx

by virtue of his nose.)



Shall we now judge the heffalump,

his intellect and charm ?

His mien is calm

and yet sometimes his orbs gleam quite distracted;

his spiring tooth, his bulk uncouth,

give cause for some alarm.

If you still seek the cause whereby,

the deeper darker reason why,

his sundry claims to grace are all hereby rejected -

to tell the truth,

it is because the heffabrute

just doesn’t give a damn.

1988, 1994

**** **** ****


11 comments:

La Figlia Che Piange said...

Wait wait, Winnie The Pooh and?

Anonymous said...

Carrol, Nash, The Pooh and...you?

Nice, though.

Anonymous said...

I meant 'Carroll', of course.

*kicks self for typo*

Oh and, yay! You're back!

Falstaff said...

Nice. Like the 'complements their poetry with his sev'ral tons of prose' line (though why put in the his and then shorten several)

Progga said...

lovely!

Aradhita said...

Nice one!

why does this remind of one from the 'Aabol Taabol'?? :)

s said...

cool. autobiographical?

Anonymous said...

Tres bien.
Now for the aetology and the pathology...

hdpal said...

Heffabrute shouldn't give a damm.

Nice.

J. Alfred Prufrock said...

Srin, Tom P - Nash perhaps, Milne for the term. But Carroll?

Falstaff - checked the scansion. I'd 'umbly submit that it works.

Progga, Greenpeace, Horidas et al - thank you. But Aabol Taabol? I know my limitations!

Kaushik - a very subtile thrust, indeed.

Samit - such a perceptive child!

J.A.P.

Anonymous said...

Laughed a lot!Thanks!