Monkey
Meets
Pontius Parrot
(With glorious memories of Macarronic Latin)
Pontius Parrot is very clever
and very pontifical.
He pontificates from his pulpit.
“Pretty Polly!”
His name isn’t Polly
and he doesn’t have a pulpit
but he parrots words
in Macaronic Latin:
“Caesar adsum jam forte.”
Pontius Parrot is
perky at the podium.
He bounces up and down,
preens himself prettily,
rattles his chains,
shakes his bars:
“Brutus aderat.”
Shame and scandal
wear him down.
A dysfunctional family
of feathered friends
henpecked him
until he was black and blue
and threw up copiously:
“Caesar sic in omnibus.”
He dips his wings in holy water,
calls for some soft soap,
and washes
feathers and claws.
Poor Pontius Parrot,
He can only say
“Repent!”
“Brutus sic in at.”
Comment: Anyone who suffered through school Latin, especially if they went to boarding school or grammar school, will recognize famous Macarronic Latin quotes such as the verb bendo, whackere, ouchi, sorebum, and the one the author of Monkey Temple reproduces in the above poem. If you are unfamiliar with Macarroni Latin and have had the good fortune to have avoided both grammar and boarding schools, just read the Latin normally in English and you will establish its Macarronic meaning.
rogermoorepoet 
Love the alliteration. Poor parrot! I never learned Latin in school. In the poor, rural school district I was in, I’m fortunate to have learned any second language. And truly, it was fortunate that I chose Spanish over French because the French teacher was more interested in flirting with the basketball players than teaching the class!
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Memories are made of things like that. I am still ‘rocked’ by the ever-emerging scandals that are shaking the Catholic Church and school systems. Incredible abuse denied over decades and a constant grooming of the next generation. I guess flirting with the basketball players isn’t that bad …. unless what you mean by flirting isn’t what I mean by flirting.
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Well as far as I know it was just flirting! But that is filtered through my innocence too! The scandals emerging regarding the decades of abuse and cover up are just horrifying. The latest stories are coming out of Pennsylvania and I wonder if any of the predator priests on the list abused someone I know. Most of my school friends growing up were Catholic. I shudder to think….
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