ladies and gentlemen it is with sorrow
that i must tell you the boss is no
longer among us
he paid his bill and took his coat
long since and his spirit
did not migrate anywhere nearby
alas he may have gone on to
his eternal reward
deservedly so or long island
in any case he willed
me the typewriter
he was a good man and left
a great deal more scraps than
he would admit in the
wastepaper basket archy he
would say to me do not
tell your adoring public feign
penury and woe the stuff sells we are
co conspirators
nevertheless to my surprise i
find that i myself and even
mehitabel the cat have
outlived the lease of nature without
paying a dime in breath bill was always
going on about that stuff
but in spite of that it doesn t
seem to apply to insects
as you know i was a vers libre poet
and a human i died
myself and my spirit migrated
i have been
squashed often enough
as you also know
and always migrated into
a cockroach again but
all the same i seem to have
attained a measure of
immortality

perhaps there is
something in the stuff
after all

yours for the latest edition

                                  archy