Setting up the scene for a play is one thing

Knowing where to start a story with a ring

Is the kinda thing Ludlam & Grisham do well

And they make the big bucks - can't you tell?



Expositions come out of them like cool water

They know where to begin and end - they oughta

I kinda start in the middle of everything I write

And then when things seem to get outta sight



I work with flashbacks to make everything fall

Into sequence so the reader can see how it all

Came together to be where you are right now

So it all starts to make sense and becomes how



One fellow takes the world by the horns and wins

Something I never do, never did, never will, 'tis a sin

Because winners always walk over someone else

Making them losers ... and I couldn't do that - hell!



I don't have it in me to trample over my neighbor

And I sure wish they wouldn't, either - as a favor

Wish they'd just get on about their own business

Just as I tend to ... because who wants the stress?



I can't think of anything in the world any worse

Than having ongoing spats with people so close

It would keep you from leaving your own house

And then you might just as well live like a mouse



Christopher W. Thomas

5:20pm Friday 11/21/97