Invocation of the
Nature Spirits in
Rhyming Couplets

By Xuk Shupe

I'd like to start, if I may
On this beautiful day,
By invoking the city
The streets are not gritty
It has a nice river
Should you wander down to her
And some places to park
But don't push your luck
And on Hardenberg street
Is the place that we meet
In Norma's old house
We'll sit on the couch
And the chairs
And the floor and the stairs
And some will hang on the walls
The nature spirits are next
The forces complex
Wind, fire, earth
And water's wet turf
Forests and glens
Fields, hills, dales, and fens
The mountains and lakes
Volcanoes and earthquakes
Tornadoes and hurricanes
Breaking the window frames
Hail, thunder, and lightning
I'm getting frightened
I think I'll invoke something cuter
Animal spirits! (now very fast) I'll invoke the cats and the rats and the dogs and the frogs and the whales and their tails and the tigers and the spiders and the squid fuck the rhyme! And the turtles and the parakeets and the gnus and the giraffes and the perch and the worms and the horses and the warthogs and the mice and the gibbons and the velocoraptors and the centipedes and the opossums and the locerifera and the planarians and the sea slugs and the raccoons and the bears and the deer and the paramecium and the salamanders and the salmon and the gorillas and the owls and the antelope and the moose and the dragonflies and the beetles and the fire ants and the wolverines and the voles and the penguins and the polar bears and the wooly mammoths and the sharks and the skates and the manta rays and the preying mantises and the lions and the ravens and the bats and the squirrels and the geese and the ducks and the rhinoceri and hippopotami and the lemurs and the bandicoots and whomever I might have left out.