These past few days
I always find
This rhythm going
Through my mind.
Burma-Shave.
From dawn of day
To setting sun,
The iambs settle
One by one.
Burma-Shave.
In ABCB,
We can see
The power of
Simplicity.
Burma-Shave.
Elastic but
Hypnotic meter;
No sestina
Could be sweeter.
Burma-Shave.
ABCB.
Thin or fat,
Everything
Comes down to that.
Burma-Shave.
Through the brain
This rhythm hums.
Quatrains beat
Like jungle drums.
Burma-Shave.
Jesus loves me,
This I know.
His house is in
The village, though.
Burma-Shave.
I could sit here
All day long,
Tapping out
This simple song.
Burma-Shave.
I no longer
Have the patience
For criminal
Investigations.
Burma-Shave.
I’m feeling their
Malign effects.
De minimis
Non curat lex.
Burma-Shave.
But I have learned
My lesson well.
I have to write
What I can sell.
Burma-Shave.
In the words
of Manny Kant,
I try to give ‘em
What they want.
Burma-Shave.
And so I have
to write in prose.
Well, c’est la vie.
That’s how it goes.
Burma-Shave.
Burma-Shave was a brand of shaving cream. For future scholars: shaving cream was a substance like soap men applied to their faces to soften their beards and prepare it for shaving. As their beards immediately started to grow back and needed to be shaved again the very next day, it is unknown why men did this.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about Burma-Shave. “Burma-Shave is a United States brand of brushless shaving cream introduced by the American Safety Razor Company in the 1920s, famous for its clever advertising gimmick of posting limericks on sequential highway billboard signs. Burma-Shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1963 in all of the lower 48 states except for New Mexico, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Four or five consecutive billboards would line highways, so they could be read sequentially by motorists driving by. This use of the billboard was a highly successful advertising gimmick, drawing attention and passers-by who were curious to discover the punchline.”
Examples from the Wikipedia Burma-Shave page:
To change that
shaving job
to joy
you gotta use
the real McCoy
Burma-Shave
A chin
where barbed wire
bristles stand
is bound to be
a no ma’ams land
Burma-Shave
Riot at
drug store
calling all cars
100 customers
99 jars
Burma-Shave
The wolf
is shaved
so neat and trim
Red Riding Hood
is chasing him
Burma-Shave
The complete text of all the Burma-Shave jingles appears on the Web at http://burma-shave.org/jingles/
When Les Wisner began having trouble at his café with ASCAP and BMI demanding he buy a license from them, he banned performers at his café from singing cover songs and insisted they only sing their own compositions. He posted a sign which said:
BMI and ASCAP
Want my dough
If you play covers
Out you go
Burma Shave
This got the rhythm going in my head, and this poem was the result.
I note that this stanza:
Jesus loves me,
This I know.
His house is in
The village, though.
Burma-Shave.
would work just as well the other way:
Whose woods these are
I think I know
Because the Bible
Tells me so.
Burma-Shave.
Burma-Shave
These past few days
I always find
This rhythm going
Through my mind.
Burma-Shave.
From dawn of day
To setting sun,
The iambs settle
One by one.
Burma-Shave.
In ABCB,
We can see
The power of
Simplicity.
Burma-Shave.
Elastic but
Hypnotic meter;
No sestina
Could be sweeter.
Burma-Shave.
ABCB.
Thin or fat,
Everything
Comes down to that.
Burma-Shave.
Through the brain
This rhythm hums.
Quatrains beat
Like jungle drums.
Burma-Shave.
Jesus loves me,
This I know.
His house is in
The village, though.
Burma-Shave.
I could sit here
All day long,
Tapping out
This simple song.
Burma-Shave.
I no longer
Have the patience
For criminal
Investigations.
Burma-Shave.
I’m feeling their
Malign effects.
De minimis
Non curat lex.
Burma-Shave.
But I have learned
My lesson well.
I have to write
What I can sell.
Burma-Shave.
In the words
of Manny Kant,
I try to give ‘em
What they want.
Burma-Shave.
And so I have
to write in prose.
Well, c’est la vie.
That’s how it goes.
Burma-Shave.
Burma-Shave was a brand of shaving cream. For future scholars: shaving cream was a substance like soap men applied to their faces to soften their beards and prepare it for shaving. As their beards immediately started to grow back and needed to be shaved again the very next day, it is unknown why men did this.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about Burma-Shave. “Burma-Shave is a United States brand of brushless shaving cream introduced by the American Safety Razor Company in the 1920s, famous for its clever advertising gimmick of posting limericks on sequential highway billboard signs. Burma-Shave sign series appeared from 1925 to 1963 in all of the lower 48 states except for New Mexico, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Nevada. Four or five consecutive billboards would line highways, so they could be read sequentially by motorists driving by. This use of the billboard was a highly successful advertising gimmick, drawing attention and passers-by who were curious to discover the punchline.”
Examples from the Wikipedia Burma-Shave page:
To change that
shaving job
to joy
you gotta use
the real McCoy
Burma-Shave
A chin
where barbed wire
bristles stand
is bound to be
a no ma’ams land
Burma-Shave
Riot at
drug store
calling all cars
100 customers
99 jars
Burma-Shave
The wolf
is shaved
so neat and trim
Red Riding Hood
is chasing him
Burma-Shave
The complete text of all the Burma-Shave jingles appears on the Web at http://burma-shave.org/jingles/
When Les Wisner began having trouble at his café with ASCAP and BMI demanding he buy a license from them, he banned performers at his café from singing cover songs and insisted they only sing their own compositions. He posted a sign which said:
BMI and ASCAP
Want my dough
If you play covers
Out you go
Burma Shave
This got the rhythm going in my head, and this poem was the result.
I note that this stanza:
Jesus loves me,
This I know.
His house is in
The village, though.
Burma-Shave.
would work just as well the other way:
Whose woods these are
I think I know
Because the Bible
Tells me so.
Burma-Shave.