Imitation, the pundits cry, is the  sincerest form of flattery,
but when we see what some writers try it's time for assault and battery.
The rhymes they flout, their rhythms are out, their images weak and watery,
Their lines are frequently overlong and could do with a dose of cautery.

It's no go the pen and ink,  it's no go the motherboard:
All we want is a simple line that doesn't sound too untoward.


The poet laureate crossed his eyes and sighed in deep vexation,
Where from among this sorry lot will come a poet for the nation?
They all abjure the concrete noun and spend their whole devotion
on overdeveloping an abstract theme removed from real emotion!

And it's no go the active verb, they substitute the passive ,
No go the simple noun sans an adjective pile that's massive.


And the frown on the face of the reader of prose is ever growing darker;
he reiterates the quote about Milne that's found in Dorothy Parker.
Jejune indulgence in horror and gore have sunk to depths appalling
and the feeble attempts in shocking taste are continuous and galling.

So it's no go for the surfacing of that subconscious Id
but time to go for screws and nails to fasten the coffin lid    .