warty bliggins
the toad
Don Marquis

[archy is the name of a cockroach who wrote his poems on a typewriter by falling on the keys one at a time. He left them for Don Marquis --- a New York newspaper columnist --- to find in the morning. He wrote about his friend mehitabel, the alley cat ("toujours gai") and his other animal friends. Since archy couldn't reach the capital letter bar, everything was in lower case. archy and mehitabel is the collection of archy's works, and is published by Doubleday --- and deserves your attention and love.]

i met a toad
the other day by the name
of warty bliggens
he was sitting under
a toadstool
feeling contented
he explained that when the cosmos
was created
that toadstool was especially
planned for his personal
shelter from sun and rain
thought out and prepared
for him

do not tell me
said warty bliggens
that there is not a purpose
in the universe
the thought is blasphemy
a little more
conversation revealed
that warty bliggens
considers himself to be
the center of the same
universe
the earth exists
to grow toadstools for him
to sit under
the sun to give him light
by day and the moon
and wheeling constellations
to make beautiful
the night for the sake of
warty bliggens

to what act of yours
do you impute
this interest on the part
of the creator
of the universe
i asked him
why is it that you
are so greatly favored

ask rather
said warty bliggens
what the universe
has done to deserve me
if i were a
human being i would
not laugh
too complacently
at poor warty bliggens
for similar
absurdities
have only too often
lodged in the crinkles
of the human cerebrum

--- archy