Cleaving The New York Times

Ode to the Old Grey Lady

“Speaking of ephemeral archives,
it appears that the NYTimes Book
Forum has permanently rendered
its service temporarily unavailable”
—http://nnyhav.blogspot.com/

The Old Grey Lady—ain’t what
She used to be—that’s for sure
Like Edith Wharton’s House of
Mirth—the slow fading away
Of the Gilded Age of Publishing

I guess The Readers Group—
Went through several face-lifts
Reincarnations & sex-changes
Before I showed up during
Nabokov’s Pale Fire—then

Lolita & Camille Paglia’s BBB—
Too much for the Old Grey Lady
Though & she ditched us all—
Keeping tacky Opera Queans
And Crossword Puzzle junkies…

Now the left-over crumbs of
The archives—gone like the
White House emails & 2004
Election wiretapping deals—
Scandal suppressed…

The NYTimes—certainly
Does what the dirty Old Lady
Says to do & as Walter Cronkite
Would say, my dear—“And

You were there, baby!!!”