Odds Bodkins

Odds bodkins, my lad and lass!

What can you find odd

About this rhythmic lark?

What is it?

Can you risk an opinion?

Can you hazard a supposition?

Do nab a stab at it!

Don’t stay in dark shadow!

Unshut your visionary orbs!

Allow a hint! An indication!

First hint:

Man is wont to dogma

And no dogma is so strong

As that dogma about orthography,

About an orthographic symbol

That is so common

That you can hardly fathom

That it is away, not at hand

In this lyric idyll, this ballad,

This madrigal!

Additional hint!

A man known as Wright

Did script an uncommon fictional composition.

Truly it would tax his noggin to do such a thing

For said dogma is strong, strong, strong.

To forgo a symbol so ubiquitous

Is almost iniquitous!

It is sly no doubt!

This work of his, said man did call:

Gadsby!

No! Not Gatsby!

F.Scott is not said author.

Wright is! Gadsby!

It has fifty thousand words

And not a solitary occasion

Of that most ubiquitous symbol.

Has your mind an inkling, an intimation

Of what I cry out?

Oh! “What foolish things!” you say.

“Your gist is still not lucid.”

Allow a last tip, a last allusion,

A last implication!

This thing of which I talk has a classification

It is in your dictionary. Truly it is.

Lipogram!

Look it up if you must

But hazard an opinion.

Risk a supposition.

Nab a stab at it!

Is it not obvious?

Also by this author on Vocal:

• My Most in Favor ______ (blank) – all about making a sandwich.
• Misfits – about two who do not fit at a fancy party.

• Procrastinator – his procrastination may kill him!
• What Occurs in Paris... – virgins on nuptial night spy unclad pair
• Milady's Ghost – a ghost story with a twist.
• Proposal – funny things occur as a man asks his girl to marry during Covid.
• Chin-up Man – crusading law man and criminals in this story which looks at contradictory opinions on Covid protocols.
• Skunk – a story about chauvinism and mob think.
• Block! – a story on doing away with script block. Has a fun twist finish.
• A Sadistic Yarn – a scary All Hallow's story with a twist.
• Ugly Duckling - classic story told again in lyrical approach of a famous Yank author
• Tiny Crimson Riding Hood – a classic story told again in soulful rhythmic spirit of Highwayman saga