Note:  This poem is a parody of Wally McRae's well known poem Reincarnation.


                    Plagiarism

"What’s this here plagiarism?"

A cowpoet ast his friend.

His pal replied, "It happens when

Yer paper meets yer pen.

You rack yer brains, and scratch yer neck,

And bite yer fingernails,

And end up writin’ down some words

Where all yer rhymin’ fails.

"The lousy verse that you done wrote,

Lies hard upon yer mind.

Plagiarism starts in when

You can no longer find

Them words and phrases bearable,

To you who criticize.

And then yer just beginnin’ on

Yer plagiarism slide."

"In a while yer disdain grows,

And festers in yer brain.

‘Till some day yer led to think

Yer work has been in vain.

And say you see another’s work,

And gaze upon a poem,

That once was his, but now’s become,

Somethin’ of yer own."

"The poem that you’ve done borrowed

From, ignorin' who wrote first
Makes meter, and rhyme, and balance

Essential to yer verse.

But still it don’t quite measure up,

Despite yer use of schism.
So you copy down the whole damn poem

This thing, that once was his’n."

"Then say by chance I wanders by

And finds this jaunty rhyme.

And I ponders, and I wonders at,

This thing that you’ve done signed.

I thinks of plagiarism,

Of art, and craft, and wit.

I comes away concludin’: Hey!

That’s mine, you thievin’ shit!

PMC, 1990