69

 

ANNIE'S SONG

with apologies to Zeno and
the Paradoxes, and to Ogden Nash,
but under no circumstances to John Denver

Annie's not her real name
(Well, maybe in the novel)
But who-is-who's the Roman game
So if you want the clef, don't grovel,
Just peek behind the title
Page at the benediction,
Yet keep in mind the vital
Truth below – it's fiction.
If she were really based on them
Would I have had to claim the
Prosaic license, taken when
I published a disclaimer?
Illusion is the field you plow
When you pick up a pen;
Do you think I'm lying now?
Or was I truly lying then?

[To make the moral even cuter:
The author didn't wield a pen,
Nor pencil, Dictaphone or pad.
Knowing that he started bad,
And needed to rewrite again
(& again & again & again),
He typed on a computer.]