OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wow! It is exhausting, writing serious stuff like that.
I hope the reader will excuse the classical references
and particularly the uncouth language in line three.
I felt it needed to be there to lend realism to the poem.
Although I included a veiled Biblical reference
in the final line I didn’t intend the poem
to have particular religious significance.
It is ma
inly a comic dirge.
I expect the ordinary man (or woman)
to struggle a bit with it but the literary critics
will know immediately what I’m attempting to do,
even if their interpretations are all over the map,
varying from seeing it as a sexual fantasy
to a deep religious meditation.

Jim Rapp taught history at Osseo-Fairchild High School from 1970 to 1996 and directed drama at Evangel Assembly of God Church in Eau Claire from 1998 to 2009.