Denial of Service
John Claiborne Isbell

Drainpipe legs and a stovepipe hat –

high starched shirt and a sharp goatee –

zero to one in a second flat –

tip of the hat – you’re looking at me.

What have I done? Well, I’ve sucked an egg.

I’ve sailed the seas – I’ve slid downstairs.

I’ve sought and I’ve found in an opened keg.

I’ve pierced my ears. I’ve put on flares.

Will I be at your beck and call?

Could be! But likely not, because

given the choice – I do sod all.

I buck the tide. I break the laws.

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John’s notes: “This is just a fun little poem that wrote itself. It’s all about the rhythm and the narrator’s point of view and tone. The word flares used to be airs, but was edited by my friend Gareth, an Ovid specialist who has a good eye for what a poem requires. And I have in point of fact put on flares like my narrator. The language is a bit British, in keeping with my student days, long ago.”

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John Claiborne Isbell is a writer and now-retired professor currently residing in France with his wife Margarita. Their son Aibek lives in California with his wife Stephanie. John’s first book of poetry was Allegro (2018); he also publishes literary criticism, for instance An Outline of Romanticism in the West (2022) and Women Writers in the Romantic Age (April 2025), both available free online. John spent 35 years playing Ultimate Frisbee and finds it difficult not to dive for catches any more!

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Denial of Service John Claiborne Isbell

Denial of Service
John Claiborne Isbell