They all loved me once,
but now they just want ragtime.
Kids are such ingrates.

She painted pictures
and was kicked out of art school.
Now she’s a plumber.

Bach looks down on you.
But don’t mind that: Bach looks down
on everybody.

All I do is write.
No games, no cats, no Facebook.
Isn’t that enough?

I will sing all night,
and make sure you’re entertained
till the morning light.

I just stuck my head
in the florist’s for a sec,
and now look at me!

“If They Knew How Ordeal Loved Me”

by Maria Kalaeva

Tonight it’s it can’t suffer from much worse
[Redacted URL]
Versus no one should in all cases feel like
I’m two quarters and a sympathy down
[Redacted URL]
And I don’t dearth to draw a blank how your voice sounds
These words are all I take so I a postal card them
I stress them just to and get by
Romp, th‚ dansant
We’re falling separately to halftime
Sashay, bop
And these are the lives you fondness to lead
Dance, this is the avenue they’d dear one
If they knew how ordeal loved me

(Dr. Boli thinks “I’m two quarters and a sympathy down” is the most poetic thing he’s heard all month. A question for readers: Is this a machine translation, in two directions, of a popular song? Dr. Boli himself stopped paying attention to popular music after 1945.)

“Deliberative”!
Ha! The Senate’s no such thing.
Well, I’m out of here.

We say we’re informed,
by which we mean that we’ve heard
a lot of shouting.