HOW A HORSE GREW HOARSE ON THE SITE WHERE HE SIGHTED A BARE BEAR: A Tale of Homonyms

Lorna Tomei's fine line beasts in agitated, grotesque poses make this look at least more interesting than Hunt's Your Ant Is a Which (p. 319, J-99), but line by line it's no wittier--and as there are far more lines, you're even less likely to get through it. This one too is in rhyme--relentless, mechanical couplets--but here the homonyms are all worked into one pointless narrative about several bickering animals who go off on a boat ride exchanging a torrent of non sequiturs: ""'Did someone say knot?' snapped the quarrelsome hare./ 'Not me,' baaed the ewe in a wail of despair. . . . ""Somehow there's a witch along too, and out of the blue she conjures a storm. During it, ""In the sky we saw a creature soar by. . . .We heard that herd and our ears grew sore""--but then the gnu takes command and they all sail through to a calm morning. Dumb.