Monday 26 April 2021

NaPoWriMo Day 26 - "Integrity"

Today's prompt:

And now for our (optional) prompt. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a parody. Besides being fun, writing parodies can be a great way to hone your poetic skills – particularly your sense of rhyme and sound, as you try to mimic the form of an existing poem while changing the content. Just find a poem – or a song – that has always annoyed you, and write an altered, silly version of it. Or, alternatively, find a poem with a very particular rhyme scheme or form, and use that scheme/form as the basis for a poem that mocks something else.

If you’d like to get some inspiration, you might consider some of the poems that Lewis Carroll included in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which parody the moralistic verse of Isaac Watts. For example, “The Crocodile” is a send-up of Watts’ “How Doth the Little Busy Bee,” while “Tis the Voice of the Lobster” is a parody of Watts’ poem “The Sluggard.” Or, for a briefer and more whimsical poem, consider “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat,” which is a parody of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

I have to admit that inspiration came very quickly for me today. I'm not sure it's parody, I think it's more satire, but you have to go with what's in your head. I taken as my basis the song Waking Up by Elastica, which is a song I really like, and changed the lyrics to concern Boris Johnson and all the latest sleaze that's been going on:

On the side of a bus
Said I'd pay them
But I only gave the NHS
A one percent rise
Needed some kit
So I called them
And gave all my mates
The PPE prize

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Distract with long words
Tell another lie

To drive to test eyesight
Isn't that reckless
I said this to cover up
For my mate Dom
I did up my flat
With some money
But I won't tell you where it is
I got it all from

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Rumple up my hair
Tell another lie

Integrity and honesty has never been easy
Oh-wo-wo I think you should know
(repeat)
Smile charmingly
Tell another lie


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