I've seen this one before on the workshop and I remember commenting on it, but can't quite remember the poet. It's a fun poem, and I think crossword puzzle and scrabble enthusiasts would most likely relate to it on some level.
FWIW, the last quatrain goes outside the traditional terzanelle. In other words, the poet has taken some liberties with the form, which usually ends either fAFA' or fFAA'. This poem, however, has three new last lines, instead of repeating the AFA lines.
Quote:
“He’s lost the plot, but memorized the terms” is superb, and is a sentence I’d like to have on my gravestone.
That statement, however, seems contradicted by the assertion in the next stanza that N will not remember who killed the secretary. Wouldn’t it be the opposite: he remembers who killed her but not the tragedy of the woman’s lost life?
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I agree with Andrew about the superbness of that line, as well as the contradiction in the next stanza:
and by tomorrow night he won’t remember
who killed the banker’s sexy secretary
I Think Andrew's and Frank's points about the “axe” are interesting and, for me, justify those lines.
A terzanelle is very difficult to write well, and the poet did a good job with this one.