ODE TO GERTRUDE ❋ Ines Radjenovic

I.

If she were alive today I’d say

If today she were alive I’d say

“Gertrude, it is hard in the modern day,”

If she were alive I’d say,

“It is hard,” I would say, “in the modern day,”

And to her spirit I say

It is hard in the modern day.

Today it is hard, ‘woo-woo,’ cry I

Cry I in the modern day

It is hard in the modern way

As the day, dumbfounded, does say, “this way,”

It is hard in this day I’d say.

How I cry in my say for this day

To be genius is mighty hard today

Though I’ve known no soft, no soft have I

It is hard, day-to-day, I’d say

It is hard for the genius in this day.

Though at least I’m free to say, I’m free

That the I finds it hard not to say

It is hard to be well in the modern day

About which, among others, I’d say

Only genius can be well, these days

Yet to be genius, again, I’d say

Is hard in the modern day.

II.

Who am I, no who are you

Better yet leave me alone

Knowing I makes me free from knowing you

And on like that we’ll go

 

III.

The problem is, I would say, in the modern day

The man has been saddened by paper squares

And the woman been saddened by man

You may say, what genius!

The aforementioned square is truly rectangle

And to that I say, it is preference, here, that makes the genius.

Now dally with your squares, I say

Dally, dally with them away

And away they go with their squares, dumb and happy

Away with their squares dumb and happy they go

Oh many men with many squares are truly a sad sight

For they’ve often no friend, no talent or true delight.