“Mark Twain” by Steve Penley
humor with an admix of salt
floats down cynical rivers
through heartlands where
whitewash and mud paint
colloquial idioms raucous
with satire of innocent foibles
and deeper cut flaws of a
galloping history peccant
with self-indulged characters
countrified mise-en-scene
dreamscapes of Camelot
paupers and shot-laden frogs
here is America rendered
with mastery argot so deftly
employed to amuse the most
pompous of old Europe ears
From my book Pieces of Wine
