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Epicure’s Delight
A wondrous day, my love, is this—
An afternoon of utter bliss!
The two of us alone at last
Embracing tightly, holding fast!
The setting sun could scarcely vie
To match the fire in your eye.
No tender blossoms can compete
With loins like yours, so soft and sweet.
Your pearly teeth, that fetching smile
My maddened senses do beguile!
Your dimpled chin, that shapely chest,
Those ears, that nose, give me no rest!
But what a fragrance, I declare!
So ravishing, it’s hard to bear.
That look of yours, that smold’ring gaze
Transfixes me into a daze.
So as I draw you to my lips
It’s with this thought I’ve come to grips:
A love like mine, so great and big,
No soul can fathom, darling Pig!
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The Elopement
It was a day like none before.
At four AM the first call came:
“Please speak to me,” he did implore,
“It thrills me just to hear your name.”
At seven in the early dawn
With ardor more insistent now,
He said it’s time that we were gone
To church, to take our marriage vow.
By afternoon the doorbell rang
And what came next was shock enough.
My heartstrings felt a sudden pang
To see him standing in the buff!
“Oh, Miss,” he sighed, “I’ve lost my way.
Forgot what I’m supposed to find.”
That was, I thought, the saddest day
When my grandfather lost his mind.
.
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E.C. Traganas is author of the debut novel Twelfth House and Shaded Pergola, a collection of short poetry with original illustrations. She has published in a multitude of literary journals. She enjoys a professional career as a Juilliard-trained concert pianist & composer, and is the founder/director of Woodside Writers, a literary forum based in New York. www.elenitraganas.com
You have mastered the surprise ending with elan!
High praise, indeed — Gracious thanks, Roy’
Most enjoyable and very funny.
Thanks so much, Norma!
Wonderfully marvelously insightfully delightful, both !
Thank you, Sally — a vegetarian’s perspective on the delights of Charcuterie!
In “Epicure’s Delight,” an erotic paean to a lover turns out to be a prelude to eating a roast suckling pig. Wow! Never have Lust and Gluttony been so artfully linked. The traditional idea is that sexual desire and fulfillment come after a good meal, but the poet reverses it here by expressing the eroticism first and the food second.
“The Elopement” is both funny and sad — a linkage that is hard to manage, but which happens very smoothly here. Notice the procession of the narrative: the character wants to talk, then he wants to go to church to be married, then he’s walking around stark naked, then he is completely oblivious. The final revelation that he is a senile grandfather is both an explanation of the foregoing, and a note of ironic disquiet.
Joseph, thank you for your insightful synopsis!
Joseph, gracious thanks for your insightful synopsis!
Epicure’s Delight plays well on human appetites to trick us – in a good way – while the rhyme scheme, uncomplicated language and eight syllable lines carry the poem along at the gallop.
I did find The Elopement rather sad in the end, though I appreciated the humour in the build up. Nice work.
Thanks for the reads, EC.
Gracious thanks for your kind words, Paul. Much appreciated!
“The Elopement” makes a sudden and disconcerting switch from comedy to tragedy which is very effective. You do indeed seem adept at the surprise ending.
Thank you, David — Indeed, I have always striven to use the ‘kill shot’ device strategically in my poetry!
Both of these pieces exemplify how poetry can be great fun. Both begin with what the reader is led to believe is a serious subject — erotic and romantic love — then in the very last verse dumps us somewhere completely unexpected. And we love feeling duped at the end because of the cleverness of the manipulation that led us there. I imagine these were as fun to write as they were to read.
Adam — indeed, it was hard to suppress an impish grin while composing both these works!