Use Your Wit

I went with my daughter to look at cars a few years back, and while she was talking to a salesman, I drifted around in the showroom. Another salesman approached me about a car I was looking at. I told him I wasn’t buying, but thought that particular vehicle was ugly.

He began his pitch, lauding all the exceptional features and functions the car had, and asked me to climb in and see how comfortable it was. I said, “Yes, but it’s still ugly.”

I had to laugh when he looked at me and said – “Maybe, but you’re inside and don’t have to look at it.”

What kind of sales pitch was THAT?

It actually reminded me of my favorite limerick – one that has stayed with me since the 9th grade – (a looong time!)

As a beauty, I am not a star.

I love limericks. They are a technical form of humorous verse consisting of five lines  - the first, second, and fifth have three metrical feet and rhyme together and the third and fourth have two metrical feet and rhyme together. They challenge you to quick, tight writing and require wry wit.

It just gets curiouser and curiouser.  Lewis Carroll filled his books with poetic parody, but most contain quatrains.  I didn’t locate any limericks.  It seems to me that the Alice books scream for one!

Do you have a favorite limerick? Have you written one you are particularly proud of?  Comment below, or E-mail  me at gayle.glass@ymail.com.  I’ll post a few later this spring (keep ‘em clean, folks!).