I

One night in Venice, near the Grand Canal,
A lovely girl was sitting by her stoop,
Sixteen years old, Elizabeth Gedall,
When, suddenly, a giant ice-cream scoop
Descended from the clouded blue corral
Of heaven and scooped her skyward with a loop-
The-loopy motion, which the gods of Venice
Saw, and, enraged, they left off cosmic tennis

And plotted their revenge. They thought some outer
Space denizen or monster had decided
To take this child, perhaps who cared about her
And wished to spare her heart a world divided,
Or else who wanted to hug, kiss, and clout her,
And, lust upwelling, the right time had bided,
Or something such—so thought, at least, the gods of
Her native city, famed for bees and matzoh.

Venice, Peru, of course, is where it happened,
A city modeled on the Italian one
Which was all paid for by Commander Papend,
A wealthy Yugoslav who liked his fun.
The Com had sexual urges large as Lapland
And was as set for action as a gun
In madman's hands who hates the world around him—
But Com was filled with love, his heart all pounding!

And so he'd made this North Italian jewel,
Canals and palaces on every side,
An urban re-creation, not renewal,
A daring lust's restatement of life's pride;
Huge bumboats carrying marble, masks, and fuel
Clogged South American streams, till Nature cried
"Some madman's building Venice in Peru!
Abomination beneath the sky's blue!"

In protest of his act, waves shook the earth:
Shock and resentment over this new Venice!
And Central South America gave birth
To hideous monstrous bees, so huge disfenes-
Tration would result when their great girth
Against some building window hurled its menace!
So, windowless new Venice had to be.
But there was one thing that could stop a bee

Of overwhelming size: a matzoh placard
Placed on the shoreside gilding of the house.
It must of course be large, huge as the Packard
Driven for Canada Dry by Mickey Mouse
Attempting to establish the world's record;
Minnie at his side, and Gabby Grouse,
A brand-new character who's been invented
Since Disney's death—they think he'd have consented.

Walt Disney dead! And Salvador Dalí lives!
Paul Éluard gone, and Aragon still alive!
How strange the breathing tickets that fate gives—
Bees dance to show, when entering the hive,
Which way best flowers are, but are like sieves
To death's mysterious force. Oh you who drive
The car, stop speeding; breathe a little longer.
Create, and make us gladder now and stronger!

As Papend did by carrying out his plan
"Venice in South America," an almost
Perfectly accurate copy. Yet one can
Discern things here and there I think would gall most
Other Venetians: bees and the whitish tan
Enormous matzoh placards which some tall ghost
Might use for palace walls. O strange piazzas
Of South America, deranged by matzohs!

How was it known, you ask me, that the busy
Bees would stop marauding if confronted
With matzoh placards? Well, it makes bees dizzy
To look at matzoh. If more details are wanted,
See Matzoh-Loving Bees by E. McTizzy
Where all's explained: the stinger's slightly stunted
Or blunted, I forget, by the bakery pleating
Of the matzoh, made in this case not for eating

But civil defense. So with this problem over
Com could proceed to build his city and bring
Into it thousands of young girls fresh as clover
And beautiful as an ancient Mexican ring
With jewels red as the hat of Smoky Stover,
And to these girls he offered everything
Our sad world can provide: drink, clothes, and money,
And, when he could, his love. Like some wild bunny

He made love over fifty times a day,
Never becoming sated, bored, or sleepy.
"It's just life's great experience," he'd say,
"That's all! Preferring other things seems creepy
When I can sweep into the disarray
Of limbs and golden hair, then plunge in deep. We
Live but once: let us not live in vain.
Sailors, come home! Here is life's bounding main!"

And, saying so, he'd lunge into some beauty
And, panting, pass a half an hour or so
Coming and crying "Ah, this is my duty!
Someone must make the human radar glow
Continually, or else the Cosmic Cutie
Will kill us! This I absolutely know!"
And so he'd theorize and love inceasingly
With pleasure growing in his soul increasingly.