DRACKO

            No, not the gunnysack half-back who’d check and whack,

            nor that ratsack tack that makes drains choke and cack;

            nor the stud duck strutting his truck of cuckolding;

            nor the Duke of Norfolk hailing El Draque when bowling;

            neither a joker from Draconia; nor a frill-laced draconigen;

            nor a drack sort decked in wacky hand-me-downs again;

            nor scary Dracula staring sparklers of blood;

or the aches from iron wracks or dreck from wrecks borne aflood:

rather, Draco of Athens, who racked up laws shockingly illenient,

cack-handed, reckless and deuced inconvenient.

These antique laws he writ bold in blood, not stone.

Debtors he enslaved, prescribed death for drones.

Even in tavernas where Greeks capered with pleasure,

Drack struck back with Draconian measures.

                                                                        Michael Small
March 13, 2000

pub. The Mozzie, vol.12, issue 8, September, 2004; Australia