Ventures Into Verse / Being various ballads, ballades, rondeaux, triolets, songs, quatrains, odes and roundels, all rescued from the potters' field of old files and here given decent burial

by H. L. Mencken

Why is a hen? (Kerflop!) Do you know?—

And the paid admissions mourn!

Vhy iss a hen? Yes? No? (Kerflop?)

Bang! goes the man at the drum;

Vhy iss a hen? (And a knock at the top!)

And the press agent's stricken dumb;

Vhy iss a—(Thud!)—iss a—(Flop!)—iss a hen?

Hark! how the supers laugh!

Vhy iss a—(Bing! Bang! Boom!)—and then

The slapstick's bust in half!