[Janice D. Soderling]

"If You Loved Me, You Would"

You're never satisfied.
You want your catfish fried
while wriggling on the hook,
its tail still in the brook.

You come on hot as Shelley
but primed by Machiavelli.
You want your women loyal
like you wuz something royal.

You're just a short-haul trucker.
You grab a gal and shuck her.
You moved me once or twice,
then went from fire to ice.

You're worse than civil war.
Besides you grunt and snore.
So over there's the door.
I don't love you any more.

[Roger Slater]

NOTE ON THE KITCHEN TABLE

I did not love you yesterday.
I love you even less today.
And here's my educated guess:
tomorrow I will love you less,
but by the next day it will seem
like passion, love and high esteem,
and so on at so great a rate
that by next Thursday I will hate
the very ground you walk upon,
so keep the house and car. I'm gone.

[Marion Shore]

I've loved you for years,
and much to my sorrow.
I'm leaving today.
Well--maybe tomorrow.

[Roger Slater]

Note: I've posted another version of this one below.


FORTY SKIDOO

Farewell, farewell,
it's time to scram,
to bust, to scoot,
to bolt, to jam,

to bail, to roll,
to skip, to blow,
to hit the road,
to fade, to go,

to split, push off,
make tracks, vamoose,
to beat it, boogie,
bounce, cut loose,

to flee, to break,
to hike, to fly,
to pearl, to jet,
to wave good-bye,

to ramble, toddle,
leave, move on,
to flee the scene,
clear out, be gone,

to bug out, check out,
flake out, ditch.
Pick one, my dear.
I don't care which.

Would you prefer
I say it louder?
It's over, sweetheart.
Take a powder.

[Marion Shore]

Is it my imagination, Bob, or does this have echoes of Dr. Seuss's "Marvin K. Mooney Won't You Please Go Now"?

[Roger Slater]

Steeped as I am in various titles by Dr. Seuss, I don't know that one at all? Is it too close?

I just wrote this with a slang dictionary in front of me listing ways of saying "leave." It did feel kiddie-like to me, though, and I was planning on doing a version with a different ending for kids.