[Graham King]

As the Competition brief explains,
We must by this April’s fifth day
Enter, to bear rewards away -
No prize, then, for one who abstains
Or is late! Too, we must take pains
To use the rhyme-words rightly. May
We take some liberties, and play
On words in ways that their sense strains?
It seems so, if one’s license leaves
Their essence still no less (uns-
Poiled) - unlike some shill - his heaves
Will haul a word in twain! How sombre at h-
Is task he shirks; unluckier, uns-
Anctified, such laxity dooms verse to death.