In the Year of the Ax,

they took a shine to the TV,

it was with Windex and holey cotton

socks; an effulgence on the

flat screen blazoned the season.

Holey cotton-looking clouds

laden with pre-snow

clotted the welkin and environs.

It was dark during the day, it

was not Daylight Saving,

it was Eastern Standard

Time.  By the light of an effulgence from

behind the fire screen,

they read TV Facts, TV

Guide (Celebrity Rehab).

Artwise, they read and heard

John and Alan Lomax.

To the grubby hearth they took

Clorox, they took Clorox II.

They got out Ajax and Purex.

Not feeling too bright,

they poured boiling water

into the vortex of the Chemex

for a fix.  They scrubbed the

Latex walls with Boraxo.

They paid their Amex

bills; they ate Tex-Mex

takeout; in Gore-tex slickers

they perambulated; they

checked the indexes on

screens; they Xeroxed.

Holey cotton socks

make prodigious rags

for cleaning products.

Laden with cleasing poisons,

the products nix grease,

germs, dirt. With xes

on their eyes, they caught some zs.

Joan of Arc High

These guys go to All Saints

St. Alvin          St. Simon        St. Theodore

with holy cuckoo helium voices

I go to La Pucelle High School

it's fairly francophone

I go to L’Alouette, to Jeanne D’Arc

We honor all our students at Joan of Arc High

Joan said it all:  “If you hurt me I will say anything you like

to stop the pain”—Bernard Shaw made her say it

in Saint Joan Scene IV—

“but I will take it all back after, so what is the use of it?”