So many rules for Sonnet sound and shape.
I want to try to make a perfect one,
Petrarchan-style. At least I have begun . . .
but now I’ll need a wand, top hat, and cape,
as I encourage Rabbit to escape
the hat, while spouting HOCUS-POCUS . . . Done!
Some magic and the hare is half-way won;
what’s more, my poem seems to be shipshape,
no matter that I have five lines to go.
This coney’s other half won’t leave the hat,
I don’t know why. The bunny’s too damned slow.
Well, up my sleeve’s an imprecation: SCAT!
Be quick! No time! A mere one line to show
a Sonnet and . . . here’s Rabbit! Now how ’bout that?!
Jacquelyn Shah has AB–Rutgers U (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa); MA–Drew U; MFA, PHD–U of Houston: English/creative writing. Poetry publications: chapbook (small fry); full-length book (What to Do with Red); poems in journals; also, hybrid memoir (Limited Engagement). She was a 2023 Pushcart Prize nominee.
