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Ten Quatrains on Anagrams
of the Author's Name


A FINAL LEDGE
She said it never came to that;
I answered with a frown.
A chilling breeze whisks off my hat;
it tumbles ten floors down.

FAILED ANGEL
A robe, a cloud, a golden lyre:
some things kept for the winners.
Returning to the blazing fire,
I whip and poke the sinners.

A GLAD FELINE
Until man learns to rest his mind,
he’ll be a slave to beasts.
I’d be a tomcat, and unwind
between my un-canned feasts.

LEADING LEAF
A single point must be the first,
the herald proclaiming the fall.
Then, all as one, the branches burst,
and down come one and all.

GALENA FIELD
So many mines contain mere coal,
a common, profane strata.
I dig for kohl, a rock with soul,
and dream of Cleopatra.

A LADLING FEE
Stock prices rise, some folks get canned;
I’d skip that dinner roll.
You pay me some, this spoon here pours
some soup into your bowl.

ALIGNED FLEA
Each leg in place, each wing locked in
is perfect; now log that in.
No circus, dog, but just a pin
and neatly labeled Latin.

A LEGAL FIEND
“Objection!” “Overruled!” “Sustained!”
The language may seem trite,
but makes the difference if you’re pained
to rot in jail one night.

FELLED AGAIN
Not once but twice the chainsaw purred,
the woodsman lithe and limber.
Regardless whether anyone heard,
he called to no one, “Timber!”

NAIF, ALLEGED
“They think me innocent — how quaint!
It’s me the theorists fear:
An ingenue I simply ain’t,
for I’m an engineer.”

Daniel Galef

If you have any comments on these poems, Daniel Galef would be pleased to hear from you.

These poems were first published as a puzzle in Word Ways.

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