Resumé

Razors pain you;

Rivers are damp;

Acids stain you;

And drugs cause cramp.

Guns aren’t lawful;

Nooses give;

Gas smells awful;

You might as well live.

Dorothy Parker

(Picture: Grave of a Suicide Victim, Wilhelm Kotarbinski)

Penelope

In the pathway of the sun,
     In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
     He shall ride the silver seas,
          He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbour's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
          They will call him brave.

Dorothy Parker

(Picture: Penelope unravelling her web, Joseph Wright)