David Plantinga Poems

King Agamemnon raised a wind
When the whole fleet had lain becalmed.
He'd sacrificed, and hadn't qualmed.
From horror he could not rescind.
...

A vegetable sufficiently boiled
And buttered and salted and oiled
Can taste just like meat
Off a parakeet
...

Although that shadow's tread was light
And its cold presence absence massed,
A darker darkness to contrast,
A hole in the black cloak of night,
...

When the nimble aphids are leaping
And squat caterpillars are creeping
They're fleeing on before
The mower's starting roar,
...

It's lovely to live on a boat
So mobile a dwelling and remote,
But beaching in sand
To dock on dry land,
...

In welcome old Fido is barking
But cats are too haughty for marking
If tenants are home,
Or off on a roam.
...

Though cue-balls are glossy and smooth
The felt has been rough since my youth.
Some dimples assist
When fairways resist
...

A huckster from Huxby displayed
His circus of fleas to any who paid.
A bug on a trapeze
Can soar with such ease
...

The scaup is searching for a shore
To build her nest, a lonely beach,
Or rocky cliff no fox can reach.
Egg-gobblers and roosting mothers war.
...

The ancients put tremendous matters
On oracles and auguries.
When godhood speaks, the priest agrees.
Glib cunning fails when trouble batters.
...