Keith Tornheim, a biochemistry professor at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, has six recent books, The Sacrifice of Isaac; I Am Lilith, Dancer on the Wind; Spirit Boat: Poems of Crossing Over; Can You Say Kaddish for the Living?; Fireflies; Spoiled Fruit: Adam and Eve in Eden and Beyond. His poems have appeared in Ibbetson Street, The Somerville Times, Boston Literary Magazine, Muddy River Poetry Review and Poetica.

Rhyming Bane

Keith Tornheim

The source of this ditty I deign to explain:
While I was waiting for the subway train
in this morning’s autumn rain,
it did not seem insane
or even oh too vain
to compose this over-rhymed refrain—
though in the main
my thoughts were going down the drain
or stayed in bed where I had lain.
So, dear reader, please don’t crane
your neck or strain
your eyes to parse in pain
as the hours wane.

I fear more insight you will not gain
in glancing more than minutes twain
at these words this sheet now stain
in lines that trickled from my brain.

— Keith Tornheim

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