The Old Stand By

                                                           A Sonnet

When I can’t think of anything to write,

      When I am stuck for joke or paragraph,

      Or anything to raise a single laugh,

I start upon a ragtime sonnet bright

Because it is so easy to indite.

To pen a lay in this poetic form

      I do not have to choose a subject deep,

      Any old thing will go from “Mary’s Sheep”

To “Why Did Ma Lock Pa Out in the Storm?”

Time was you had to write about the moon,

Or maidens’ eyes, and dreamy nights in June,

      Or sonnetize to Sappho and the stars;

      But now the poets have let down the bars

For which I’m truly grateful for the boon.

                                                       Joe Cone

Nov. 19, ‘07