Pied Beardty
Glory be to Zedwick for bearded things –
__For hairs of couple-colour as a brown cow;
____For whiskers all in stubble upon sensitive skin;
Fresh 5 o’clock shadow; flanking wings;
__Enough for exclamations – ‘Gosh’, ‘Amazing’, and ‘Wow’;
____Off to the sink, with razor and scissors for a trim.
All things bare, smooth, barren, strange;
__Whatever is whiskered, ‘stached (who knows how?)
____With goatees, mutton chops, handlebars, pencil (slim)
He fathers-forth beards whose beauty is past change:
___________________Praise him.
Intermission
The Beard
Beard, beard, glowing bright
In the server at the night,
What electric screen or eye
Could capture thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant times or skies
Did the stubble begin to rise?
On what style dare he aspire?
That makes all others looks so dire?
And what length and what art
Those hairs that captured my own heart?
What else could set my heart to beat,
But whiskers that grow down to his feet?
What the brush? What the chain?
To comb that which drives men quite insane?
What the clippers? What dread grasp
Dare its luscious bristles clasp?
When the others threw down their shears,
And water’d zedwork with their tears,
Did He smile His beard to see?
Did He who made the zerver make thee?
Bear, Beard, glowing bright
In the server at the night
I wish I could capture with my eye
That beautiful, fearful symmetry.