Terza Rima for Kathy

 

I heard that someone dissed the terza rima

and that you weren’t impressed – well I don’t blame you

these tercets make for one terrific schema.

 

Who makes such mean and scurrilous a claim? Who

holds the triple rhyme in low esteem? (We

know you, charlatan, and we will shame you.)

 

This triple breasted tart of Alighieri

fights dirty, while bland couplets spread their mission

in sweaty psalms and sonnets oh, so dreary.

 

One need not be a great mathematician

to count the threesomes sparked by Dante’s letters
(Divina’s one long-winded composition!)

 

Those quatrains are for meek and mild bedwetters;

the trine is for the visionary dreamer,

uniquely primed for rhyme’s extreme go-getters.

 

But here, the couplet finds its great redeemer

to finish off this bloody terza rima.