Elaton

by Dane C. Joseph

Monsieur Dard, monsieur Dard: what a life that you have had
All those people whom you've met
along the way
Is it true, were you joking, when you
said that you'd invented
a means to harvest wheat grass from the hay

Monsieur Dard, monsieur Dard: who will share in your life's bard
The fifth grade English teacher gifting all those Cs
I'd forgotten that you'd meter at the board
like some used preacher
Still you wrote ninety-five times,
"By all means!"

Monsieur Dard, monsieur Dard: now you've
failed and fallen hard
succumbing to old vice and vain conversion
Chasing your moral ideals, committing misdeeds
with your Zs
Fisher's foes for sure do frown
on variation

Monsieur Dard, monsieur Dard: Gould warned you not to measure
that most fledging creature they call Hue– Man
now you'll never stop adding, dividing and regressing
You're addicted to perverse comparison

Normally I would believe that
the probability
of ranking students and their shoes is just too hard
Perhaps we should be thankful for those predicaments you handle
So I tip my hat to thee:
Monsieur Stan Dard