CL Writing Contest 2017 Readers' Pick, Poetry: “Rhyme Time,” by Judith Rousuck

"Poe went darker, wouldn’t be caught dead.”

click to enlarge Daguerrotype of Edgar Allan Poe. - U.S. Public Domain
U.S. Public Domain
Daguerrotype of Edgar Allan Poe.
Coleridge knew it; Longfellow, too.

Wordsworth eschewed it; Byron turned blue.

Poe went darker, wouldn’t be caught dead.

Wilde said: Who needs it? Let’s paint the town red.

Browning and Pound, Ginsberg and Blake,

Plath and Milton wouldn’t make the mistake.

Frost’s woods were yellow,

Whitman’s grass green.

But a rhyme with “orange”

Will never be seen.

Read more about the winners and finalists in the CL Writing Contest here.