Earlier this week, Shirley sent me an e-mail forward that included notable entries from a Washington Post competition. According the forward, the Post asked readers to submit two-line poems that began with a romantic line but ended with a distinctly non-romantic one.

Before you sample the entries, here’s one I wrote:

Your eyes so sparkly, your hair so red

Is that the sun shining through your head?

Here are some received by The Washington Post:

Love may be beautiful, love may be bliss,

But I only slept with you, because I was pissed.

I thought that I could love no other

Until, that is, I met your brother.

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you.

But the roses are wilting, the violets are dead, the sugar bowl's empty and so is your head.

Kind, intelligent, loving and hot.

This describes everything you are not.

I love your smile, your face, and your eyes.

Damn, I'm good at telling lies!

My darling, my lover, my beautiful wife:

Marrying you really screwed up my life.

I see your face when I am dreaming.

That's why I always wake up screaming.

What inspired this amorous rhyme?

Two parts vodka, one part lime.

All right y’all, it’s Friday, and I want to see you bust a rhyme. Give me your best!

November 3, 2006