There once was a monk from Great Plains
Who was stunned by Love’s cryptic claims.  
Love liberates from bondage
Lonely hearts taken hostage
And sets the free in chains.  
  
There once was a monk from St. Klaus
Perplexed by love because
Unlike the shadow it casts
It’s fun while it lasts
And it lasts as long as it does.

There once was a monk from Bellamy
Who indulged in sexual treachery.  
“Most women,” he believed, 
“Are conveniently deceived
But I suspect they’re already on to me.” 

There once was a monk from the slums
Dumbfounded by marital doldrums.  
The one good in bed
Gets the butter and bread
While the baker is left with the crumbs.  

There once was a monk from Tuscany
Who could not comprehend matrimony.  
The wife wanted a kid
So she did what she did
Then consigned her husband to history.  

There once was a monk from Schenectady
Who questioned the sense of monogamy.  
Sex is a series of c••ks and c••ts
Whereas spouses make love but once—
A “once” that lasts an eternity.  

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Preston comments: What I’m doing, to put it bluntly, is reversing limerick form and content. Limericks traditionally have a strong rhyme-metric structure, which in turn contrasts/highlights the traditionally obscene content.  I’ve reversed this: I want to heighten the thematic content (Taoist/zen/philosophic, “There once was a monk…”) yet maintain the humor in a fractured form (near rhymes, stuttering meter).  I feel the limerick has suffered too long under the yoke of political incorrectness. Liberate the limerick, I say! Ne, demande!  

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For other verse by Preston, please see his Improv Poesy or his Villanelle. To see an earlier posting of four poems by Preston, click here. To hear him talk about shakuhachi and Zen, and to hear him play, please listen to the following podcast:
https://www.ancientdragon.org/podcast-library/