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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A TURKISH ELECTION by ARTHUR GUITERMAN

First Line: AMONG THE FEMININITY / AS WELL AS MASCULINITY
Last Line: "TILL BOSPHORUS RUNS DRY!"
Subject(s): MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET (570-632); MAHOMET; MOHAMMED;

A Turkish Election
Among the femininity
As well as masculinity
Of Istambul's vicinity
Was tumult and hurrah;
Abdullah the Uproarious
And one more meritorious,
Mohammed, called "the Glorious,"
Were running for Pasha.

Abdullah's wiles were various;
With drinks at one denarius
He made the mob hilarious;
He purchased votes in shoals.
He roused his rowdy partisans
From donjon keeps and bartizans;
They rounded up the artisans
And drove them to the polls.

Mohammed held such knavery
Deplorably unsavory;
He smiled in simple bravery,
And close to six o'clock,
When every hope seemed blotted out,
By districts neatly plotted out,
The harem vote he trotted out
And potted it @3en bloc@1.

Then thousand men with scimiters
And crimson-sashed perimeters,
Tetrameters and trimeters,
Commingled in the cry:
"This man will get the dross for us!
His brain is rich in phosphorus!
Mohammed is the boss for us
Till Bosphorus runs dry!"



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