Thursday, May 1, 2014

May Queen


The Pig

by Anonymous
It was the first of May
A lovely warm spring day
I was strolling down the street in drunken pride,
But my knees were all a-flutter,
And I landed in the gutter
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.

Yes, I lay there in the gutter
Thinking thoughts I could not utter
When a lady passing by did softly say
'You can tell a man who boozes
By the company he chooses' — And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

"The Pig" by Anonymous. Public domain.

from Writers Almanac.



On this day, when I was young, girls danced around the maypole at school.  One year, my high school-aged sister was crowned the May Queen.  I, 6 years younger, was so jealous.  Some day, I thought, I will go to St. Ann's and be the queen of May, too. 

2 comments:

TC said...

You've still got a chance. Never lose hope.

"May Queen"-themed things invariably prompt a curious memory of... Allen Ginsberg.

No really.

"One day, when I was young," Allen landed in England, where I then happened to be, directly from Prague, whence he had departed just after being elected King of the May (Kral Majales) by a congenial group of students.

Allen's attentions to some of the students had been detailed in the notebooks of some of the students, and also had drawn the attention of the authorities, who had confiscated the notebooks, and the students had been dealt with accordingly, after the fashion of totalitarian authorities.

While the compromised students were left to face the music, the King of the May had departed for the next stop on his royal tour.

Nin Andrews said...

Wow, that's quite a story. Ginsberg stirred the pot wherever he went. I attended a Buddhist retreat once with his teacher, and people kept telling Ginsberg stories.