Thursday, September 1, 2011

toujours gai toujours gai

the song of mehitabel

By Don Marquis, in "archy and mehitabel," 1927


this is the song of mehitabel
of mehitabel the alley cat
as i wrote you before boss
mehitabel is a believer
in the pythagorean
theory of the transmigration
of the soul and she claims
that formerly her spirit
was incarnated in the body
of cleopatra
that was a long time ago
and one must not be
surprised if mehitabel
has forgotten some of her
more regal manners

i have had my ups and downs
but wotthehell wotthehell
yesterday sceptres and crowns
fried oysters and velvet gowns
and today i herd with bums
but wotthehell wotthehell 
i wake the world from sleep
as i caper and sing and leap
when i sing my wild free tune
wotthehell wotthehell
under the blear eyed moon
i am pelted with cast off shoon
but wotthehell wotthehell


do you think that i would change
my present freedom to range
for a castle or moated grange
wotthehell wotthehell
cage me and i d go frantic
my life is so romantic
capricious and corybantic
and i m toujours gai toujours gai
i know that i am bound
for a journey down the sound
in the midst of a refuse mound
but wotthehell wotthehell
oh i should worry and fret
death and i will coquette
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai

i once was an innocent kit
wotthehell wotthehell
with a ribbon my neck to fit
and bells tied onto it
o wotthehell wotthehell
but a maltese cat came by
with a come hither look in his eye
and a song that soared to the sky
and wotthehell wotthehell
and i followed adown the street
the pad of his rhythmical feet
o permit me again to repeat
wotthehell wotthehell
my youth i shall never forget
but there s nothing i really regret
wotthehell wotthehell
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai
the things that i had not ought to
i do because i ve gotto
wotthehell wotthehell
and i end with my favorite motto
toujours gai toujours gai
boss sometimes i think
that our friend mehitabel
is a trifle too gay

Sometimes. . . it's just too easy to be negative

Sometimes. . .

I just hafta delete something that maybe tells too much truth about me.

Sometimes. . . it's a whole post.

Sometimes. . .

I have to accept the fact that things aren't
going to go the way I want them to

Sometimes. . .

I just have to hang in
or hang on

Sometimes. . .

I just have to remind myself to Never Weaken
and ask myself WWHD

it's better than eating a whole large bag of kettle corn
before dinner every day, I guess
cuz that doesn't get you a contract, does it
but it can take your mind off the obsession
for as long as it takes you to chew

(Disadvantage: extreme fatness
bearing down on you
bombing through the Truth Tunnel
like an approaching train)

but as Mehitabel once put it
wottehell wottehell
and I am
if not happy,
then
at the least
toujours gai