Palimpsest

Mind time can knot bee measured on a watch; mankind cannot be treasured, honour, swatch; kind man can nobly mesh, erred on a wok; mind games climb over Chinese whispers on a cloth…

Rapier wit

If ever forced to try out swordplay
I’d fail to be a Cyrano.
And as for impro wordplay,
expecting puns? Oh, sirrah, no!

Clash of steel best fitting crossed swords
(whether epées, foils or rapiers),
flash of real wit suiting crosswords
(often met in broadsheet papers):

all would go from bad to worse
(same as when I’m writing verse).
I’m as like to win a duel as
write a gem fit for a jeweller’s.

summer

one adder
does not
a summer make
as Aristotle
said not