Inverted Bolas

[Erthona]

Inverted Bolas

They come to me and say, “Do you see, do you see.
do you see it not, a poem I wrote not one day old,
and though I’ve never seen a tree, I wrote about the bole."

A goodly plank and with it’s fellows make to sea.
A ship of stiffened mast, just a mast, be not crass.
And when we put her in the bay, how nice she lay,
just like a corpse in the bay, did she lay, night and day
with fishies swimming round, nor did she run aground,
on or by the sound, just like a corpse she made no sound.
Inverted Bolas hanging low, upside down it is the keel,
or not to keel for the Bolas knows no will in water cold,
for they're not bold, nor touch they knot fertile ground.
Till one day a hole in bole, and keel becomes a holy bole
once more, but not a whore, although she lay
on fertile ground, the water is still deathly cold,
and so the bole shall plank no more.

–Erthona


©2014

[ellajam]

Inverted Bolas

They come to me and say, “Do you see, do you see.
do you see it not, a poem I wrote not one day old,
and though I’ve never seen a tree, I wrote about the bole."

A goodly plank and with it’s fellows make to sea.
A ship of stiffened mast, just a mast, be not crass.
And when we put her in the bay, how nice she lay,
just like a corpse in the bay, did she lay, night and day
with fishies swimming round, nor did she run aground,
on or by the sound, just like a corpse she made no sound.
Inverted Bolas hanging low, upside down it is the keel,
or not to keel for the Bolas knows no will in water cold,
for they're not bold, nor touch they knot fertile ground.
Till one day a hole in bole, and keel becomes a holy bole
once more, but not a whore, although she lay
on fertile ground, the water is still deathly cold,
and so the bole shall plank no more.

–Erthona


©2014

Hi, Dale. Dunce that I am, every time I read this I tell myself I'll come back and figure it out. So today I put some effort in and realized I should give up. After that I really enjoyed it, sure packed a bunch of funny in.

Thanks for the grin.

Does a bole have a soul?

[Erthona]

ellaexactly

Thank you

dale the confounded confounder
__________________________________________

Cire Lowrimore

I'm not sure it is worthy of a critique, but you're certainly welcome to try. It's written in iambic free verse with incidental rhyme, and is basically a string of plays on words. The primary word play is on the Latin word bolas, which should properly be spelled as bolus, or bolos, thus the tree trunk, and plank. Bolas is a Spanish word for a device made of two balls tied on the ends of cords and thrown in such a way as to entangle the legs of a calf. The word bolas is also Spanish for balls. so upside down (inverted) wood and/or balls. Thus the keel is the balls of the ship, the mast is the phallus. However the balls are in cold water, and we know what happens to balls in cold water. Thus the final line which is a double entendre "and so the bole shall plank no more". That is the wood/balls of the ship will not become fertile and produce more wood, "Shall plank no more". Well that the basic word play anyway.

Dale