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ODE TO BRAZIL
Hurry, Hurry, Hurry. Mardis Gras Beckons!
By David Inkey

Hurry, hurry, hurry, mardi gras beckons...
An ode to Brazil, relived, relieved, Brasilia believed...
There r those who would Brazil deceive...
There r those who would Brazil believe...
Fortunately, the former are planted in sand?
We others are ever grand, grander, grandest,
Never to slander... the latter fill our land...
They them we us inscribe in one tribe... no diatribe...
No merchants need us bribe, Brasilia is our bride...
Rio in january, february, june and december, all will groom...
Hurry, scurry, curry favor... in madri gras we must bloom...

Betwixt unmatched pairs, some tragedians split hairs...
Suggesting to all, too many are our cares? race, poverty,
Ignorance, grief, disease... disgrace... what is ur belief?
What is our relief? MARDI GRAS!

2 score years ago minus one, i ventured to Brazil... with Christ,
Onto a height in Rio, with easter on a beach in good reach...
Sao Paulo did me allow some study of his festered sores,
Sons and daughters too oft degraded as whores? politicos, as boors?
Then, new, exciting, artistic Brasilia opened her doors...

Now, how easily I we roam thru time, to find in kind delight Insight...
Our brotherhood, sisterhood, fatherhood, motherhood we may cite, excite,
Help, help, assist, persist, consist, enlist, never to desist!

Each, of course, with great resource, astounded, unbounded,
Reaches from cruel blindness thru fineness, with gentle kindness,
Teaches, instead of preaches, wit and wisdom, heard far from the herd,
Courting awe, beauty, care, delight, shining bright, all daze and knights...
All in harmony to enthrall, sounded from deafness to deftness....
Founded on love, warned, warmed by many a dove...

Thee thinks me too much a clown? yet, do not forget,
Thee thanks me ever, the quietest clown...
Don't put me down, or you would wrong me,
Don ur costume, comic, sprite, elf?
Never enuf jesters, only self, one reckons...
Hurry, hurry, hurry, MARDI GRAS beckons...

-- Brazilianistically, David Inkey, the UN poet, pre-lent 2006.