The Sonnet Factory
Around the dawn of The Millennium,
The Sonnet Factory almost shut down!
They said it should be making bubble gum—
Much easier to sell than sense and sound.
Though local arty types threw up a storm,
No economic incentives were found
To justify Elizabethan form.
What could they do to turn the plant around?
A handsome poet who worked on the floor
Believed he had the answer: just-in-time.
He said, “The value’s in the metaphor.
Cut words that take up space, but keep the rhyme.”
Now that the factory is running well,
The poems often scan and always sell.
(c) 2006 Frederick Ingram
The Sonnet Factory almost shut down!
They said it should be making bubble gum—
Much easier to sell than sense and sound.
Though local arty types threw up a storm,
No economic incentives were found
To justify Elizabethan form.
What could they do to turn the plant around?
A handsome poet who worked on the floor
Believed he had the answer: just-in-time.
He said, “The value’s in the metaphor.
Cut words that take up space, but keep the rhyme.”
Now that the factory is running well,
The poems often scan and always sell.
(c) 2006 Frederick Ingram
Labels: economic development, Elizabethan sonnet, just-in-time manufacturing, metaphor, sonnet, sonnet factory
posted by Frederick Ingram | 2:13 PM
1 Comments:
Seemed like an appropriate opening for this collection. I wrote it in about 45 minutes. It was a runner-up in the 2006 The State poetry contest.
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