Fred's Ballads

Lines to Marian Dioguardi, on the Occasion of a Very Minor Literary Discovery

Ah, for the summer of our frivolous youth

When we wrote verses, cogent and uncouth.

That's when the muse embraced retirement,

That's when Dendritics flourished in the basement.

Lost in the moldering duff of ancient writing,

These lines rose up, like a beacon at first sighting.

They took me back to a unique community, where we danced to different drums, and with impunity.

Daphne, as I recall, was quite offended,

She thought their author surely was demented.

But if old times were a joy, and these lines spoil it,