a sure sign of spring
is springing around
the corner of spruce street

gorgeous gushing gussy girls
from ghastly grimey grimsby
or gospering gossipy gooseberry gulch
block the sidewalk and spill out
outrageous white lies
of fanning flamed out old flames into prospering
preposterous improper propositions
that are not strictly true
because they really couldn’t care more or less
while all the mawkish moping magnificent muscular males
would rather charge in pursuit
of boyish boyhood dreams
of playing centre for toronto maple leafs
and stealing the stanley cup
from the belting battling bruising boston bruin badmen
from beantown
or conversely bunting a battered batty baseball
a clean country mile thru’ the clean country air
where it is fumbled by the black-crested butter-fingered
bungling bumbler
who then drops deliciously dead at right-field centre
when the score is three to zip
for them against us and it’s all over
but goodnight irene
and the unctious umpire looks anxiously at the darkening sky
and a bottle of 7 up falls down
making the wet-water wetter
and transforming dirty discarded day-old doughnuts
into a soggy mess of squishy-squoshy mixed up mish-mash
while all the dismal dippy delightful dogs
dogged by the dogged dog-catcher
have gone to tear-off a piece
off the new pants
off the new policeman
who calls on the new widow at number twenty-two
twenty-two times a day
because in spring nancy is a young man’s fancy
until someone else turns up
a transistor at full blast
that pins your ears flat back against the sides of your skull
while the annoying announcer from the polluted land
of in god we rust
tells of a daring penny bank robbery
and a wild shoot-out at generation gap
and the little excitement banishes the winter blues
and that’s a sure sign of spring
spring around the corner of spruce street

Published in Seven News – Volume 7, Number 21 – November 6, 1976