by Peter Berryman

March 2005

Accordion to Zither

There have been one or two changes in the following since it appeared in the Mad Folk Newsletter. In addition, a melody has been added, and what was once a bit of grim free verse (in the grim tradition of Edward Gorey) is now a grim song. No doubt it will go through more changes before it's put out to pasture, but here it is anyway. I have no idea what inspired this dark piece:

A
...an Accordion
Kindled and lit
By chilly Girl Scouts
In a campfire pit

B
...is a Banjo
Too fragile to frail
Hung up in the den
On a ten penny nail

C
...is a Cello
Neck-deep in the sand
Abandoned they say
By a mandolin band

D
...is a Dulcimer
Launched like a boat
Encumbered with pebbles
And sunk in the moat

E's
...a Euphonium
Down on its luck
Reduced by the treads
Of a Mayflower truck

F
...is a Fiddle
Too funky to save
Unstrung and unglued
In an untended grave

G's
...a Guitar
On its back in the dump
Its neighbors old pants
And a bicycle pump

H
...a Harmonica
Jammed in a berm,
It's middle-C hole
The hotel of a worm

I
...is for Irish pipes
Lumped in a heap
Unable to utter so
Much as a beep

J
...is the Jug from a
Jug band's good-bye
All shattered in shards
Out on highway YY

K's
...a Kalimba
Piano for thumbs
Reborn as a planter for
Miniature mums

L
...is a Lute with its
Belly once round
Irreparably chewed by a
Renaissance hound

M's
...Mandolin like an
Undersize lute
Disliked by a biker and
Crushed with a boot

N
...is a Nose Harp
A wretched affair
Misplaced in a tent and
Inhaled by a bear

O's
...Ocarina
Is left on the lawn
And after they mow
The potato is gone

P
...is a Piccolo
Dropped in cement
It's owner unsure
Where his piccolo went

Q
...is a Quill plucked
An hour too late
To strum on the autoharp
Slammed in a gate

R's
...a Recorder
Of Bubinga wood
Conveyed through a carwash
And ruined for good

S
...is a Sitar
Peculiarly loud
In Hanover crushed
By a hungover crowd

T
...is a Trumpet and
Large Tambourine
Both lately undone
By a washing machine

U
...is a Uke
Irretrievably lost
Inside the volcano
Down which it was tossed

V's
...a Viola
Destroyed by a grin
Compressed in the rolls
Of a wrestler's chin

W's
...Washboard
Once rhythmically rich
Now flat as a flounder
And flipped in the ditch

X
...is a Xylophone
Bought for ten cents
Turned ninety degrees
And installed as a fence

Y
...a Yodello
Deformed in a fall
In fact the thing never
Existed at all

Z
...is a Zither
That withered away
So hither I blather
With nothing to play

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