after eliot ness died
leaving his third wife and first
and only adopted son his co-written book
was published and sold a million
and a half copies and robert stack
portrayed him starting in 1959
with walter winchell doing rapid-fire
narration.
the death of eliot ness by heart attack at 54
did not leave the net love felt and expressed
by humanity
appreciably diminished.
the same goes for the net anger
and hatred.
The challenge for today was to make a work of art on a rectangle of card stock measuring two and a half inches bt one and five-eights inches. Since it would be tiny, “tiny time” seemed an appropriate double acrostic. It didn’t take long to figure out end rhymes with an abab scheme, though “exempt” and “pro tem” are not quite true rhymes.
tiny time
thoughtfulness is tax-exempt
indolence is sans souci
none need senator pro tem
yin needs yang as thou needst me
The poem is a distant cousin to the lyrics of the song “The Best Things in Life Are Free.” The illustration is a sort of resonance with “thoughtfulness,” the first word of the poem, reducing a somilar concept “watchfulness” to the pocket-watch “watch,” the king’s jester “foole,” and the Prohibition-era G-Man Eliot Ness “ness.”
Readers, your time is precious, and there are thousands of demands on it. Thank you for spending this Tiny Time with me.
One with Clay, Image and Text 