431. The Puma of Yuma

BROWDERBOOKS

Nothing of my own today; I’m recovering from the Rainbow Book Fair.  Quite an adventure!  More of that next week.  See the "Coming soon" note at the end of the post below.   For my books, go here.

Silas and me at the Brooklyn Book Festival, 2019.

Next door, as you can see on the left, was Whiskey Tit, whose online self-description is "Your literary wet nurse." And yes, they did serve whiskey in tiny plastic cups to all comers.  Whether that helped them sell books I don't know.

Below is “The Puma of Yuma,” a short lighthearted poem by my long deceased friend Vernon Newton, who could do both deep and serious poetry and the lightest light verse.  I think of his light verse as children's verse intended for adults.  Here is the poem.  A few lines escape me, but the drift, I think, is clear.  Bored with his life as a puma, the protagonist decides to mix with people and adapt to their ways, and runs for elected office.  Yuma, by the way, is a city in Arizona, as if it mattered.  And the puma, or cougar, is a carnivorous mountain lion found in the mountains of the American West.

THE  PUMA  OF  YUMA

I 

The Puma of Yuma

Was bored with his lot.

He had battened and fattened

And What Had He Not?

With such Skill that the Kill

Of the Wild?  For a tot.

II

The Puma of Yuma

Marched down to the City

To make Jokes with Just Folks

About Justice and Pity,

But his Class, not the Mass

Mobbed by Code and Committee.

III

O your Town is the Crown

Of a true Self-Reliance!

One can laugh at the Gaff

Of Religion and Science!

Even jeer at the Bier,

The small Bier of Compliance.

IV

Thus he yearned, but discerned

The Time’s Tenor had changed.

Too much Zest, too much Jest

Were considered deranged.

The Puma of Yuma

Refused to be manged,

V

He was sure the Mature

Were by now self-aware

That the Weak, although bleak,

Are entitled to share

What the Strong, by a Song,

Can be flattered to spare.

VI

Yes, a Purr just for Her,

And a Purr for Him too

Were a Must if the Just

Were to freshen their Due.

The Puma of Yuma

Praised the Power of “You.”

VII

The Puma of Yuma

Picked his Hole, picked his Button.

Not a Peep from a Sheep,

Not a Gulp from a Glutton.

With a Prayer, he was Mayor

And Inspector of Mutton.

Source note:  The poem “The Puma of Yuma” is from Formulae of Summer / Poems by Vernon Newton, Prose Publishers Incorporated, New York, 1976.  A few used copies are available online from Amazon.

Coming soon:  Rainbow Book Fair: A Mystery Project, Coney Island Memories, a Proposition, and Cocain

©  2019  Clifford Browder