Political palindromes, K - M

From this point, you can proceed either forwards or backwards.

For FORWARD, proceed to the next set (N to P), of 'POLITICAL PALINDROMES.'. 
For BACKWARD, return to the previous set (H  to J), 

OR return to the original post on this topic.

GETTING TESTED: A Limerick-Based Handbook on MEDICAL TESTING

coaster from a medical school reunion

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH, 2020.  

Those readers with a medical bent might want to click to review earlier poetic collections by our intrepid pair of writers, as tabulated (with links) at the end of this post:

Hello! I'm your social distancing trainer!

 

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Medical tests (introduction)

True positive rate (sensitivity)

False positive rate

Screening

Back to normal

Randomized controlled trials

Worm with a germ 

Imaginary clinical trial: "A gram of prevention" (5 stanzas, a           'brief saga')

 

EPILOGUE: With respect to false-positive testing for COVID-19, this anecdote may be enlightening ... 

Note that the four stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE. 

And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "CLINICAL TRIAL: Prevention and Cure" by proceeding to our song-blog "Silly Songs and Satire". Click HERE .

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 !) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Lyrics for Singable Satire: NOVEL MELODIES FOR LIMERICKS

 Song Medley with Adapted Limerick Verses

ORIGINAL SONGS: as per links to our blog 'Silly Songs and Satire'.
LINKED LIMERICK MEDLEYS: Lyrics by Giorgio Coniglio set to the music of the indicated songs, mostly shown in previous blogposts.
SATIRE COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym), March 2017. Note that updated hotlinks are given for subsequent posts using these new musical adaptations.

SONGLINK: The eight singable versions of the classic Nantucket limerick can be accessed in "Silly Songs and Satire" by clicking HERE.

NOVEL MELODIES for SINGING LIMERICKS

1. "WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW" (Carole King, 1960)

Tonight you're mine completely
You give your love so sweetly.
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes.
Will you still love me to-morrow?

Limerick Adaptation (No changes from original tune needed)
There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who kept all his cash in a bucket,
Til his daughter named Nan / ran away with a man
And as for the bucket – Nan took it.

Hotlink to "Singable Limerick-Medley #26: "FROM COASTAL CAROLINA" 


2. "SUMMERTIME" (George Gershwin, 1935)
Summertime, and the living is easy;
Fish are jumping, and the cotton is high.
Oh, your Daddy’s rich, and your Ma is good-lookin’,
So hush, little baby, don’t you cry.

Limerick Adaptation (Minor changes in scanning needed)
Summer guy, lived on the isle of Nantucket:
All his cash he stuffed in a bucket to hide,
Til his daughter Nan / Ran away with a Mande
And as for the bucket, “She took it!”, he cried.

Hotlink to "Singable Limerick-Medley #27: AN ICELANDIC SUMMERTIME SAGA"   


3. "HOME ON THE RANGE" (U.S., ‘traditional’, 1872)
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard / a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Limerick Adaptation (Minor changes)
A cowboy came west from Nantucket, invested
His cash in a saddle and bucket;
Sad, his daughter named Nan / Rode away with a ranch-hand
And as for the saddle – Nan took it.

Hotlink to "Singable Limerick-Medley #21: "FIRST YEAR ON THE RANGE (reflections on President Trump's first year)".


4. "WAVES OF THE DANUBE"  ('traditional' Romanian waltz 1880, popularized as "The ANNIVERSARY SONG" by Al Jolson, 1946)
Oh, * * * how we danced * * *
On the night * * * we were wed * * *
We vowed * * * / our true love * * *
Though a word *** wasn’t said.

Limerick Adaptation (Minor changes)
The sad story of Stan from Nantucket,
Who stowed cash and stash in a bucket:
Hell, his partner named Jan / Ran away with friend Anne.
And their plan? Well, Stan’s bucket – they took it.

Hotlink to "Singable Limerick-Medley #24: "AGING IN PLACE (SOMEWHERE)"

 
5. "SANTA LUCIA" (‘traditional’ Italian 1849, also adapted by Elvis Presley 1965)
Sul mare luccica, l’astro d’argento
Placida è l’onda, prospero il vento.
Venite all’agile; / Barchetta mia;
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!

Limerick Adaptation (Moderate changes)
There was a foolish man, lived on Nantucket,
Kept cash in his little boat, hid in a bucket.
One day his daughter Nan / Sailed off with an older man,
'Barchetta mia', and bucket -  Nan took it.

Hotlink to lyrics blogpost "FILASTROCCA: PISA'S LEAN TRATTORIA"

6. "OCHI CHORNYE" ("DARK EYES" – ‘traditional’ Russian 1884)
Oh, those gorgeous eyes, dark and glorious eyes
Burn-with-passion eyes, how you hypnotize.
How I adore you so, / How I fear you though
Since I say you glow! Now my spirit’s low!

Limerick Adaptation (Moderate changes)
Once was oligarch from Nantucket
Stuck all cash in pail. Tax? He’d duck it.
But his daughter Nan / Had a man with plan --
Informed KGB, then stole bucket.

Hotlink to lyrics blogpost "RUSSIAN HACKING: Red Army Choir Sings Classical Limericks".


7. "ODE TO JOY" ("AN DIE FREUDE"; adapted  by L. von Beethoven 1824 for his Ninth [choral] Symphony from a poem by Friedrich Schiller 1785; designated the Anthem of Europe in 1972.)
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was die Mode streng geteilt;
Alle Menschen werden Brüder
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Limerick Adaptation (significant changes)
In a case that Freud had mentioned,
Dean hid fortune in a can.
Daughter Joy found lottery winnings,
Filched Dean's bucket; off she ran.

Hotlink to Wikipedia 'ODE TO JOY'.


8. THE SLOOP ‘JOHN B’ (traditional Bahamian, recorded by Kingston Trio 1958)
Oh, we came on the sloop ‘John B’ – my grandfather and me
‘Round Nassau town we did roam.
Drinkin’ all night, we got into a fight.
Oh, I feel so break-up, I wanna go home.

Limerick Adaptation (significant changes)
My Grandpa felt out of luck; on Nantucket he was stuck,
So credit cards and cash he hid in a pail;
Til his daughter Nan / Rowed off with her man;
They’d plucked Pop's bucket, but now they’re in jail.

Hotlink to Wikipedia 'THE SLOOP JOHN B'.

                                  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume your review of the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until July 2025. 

As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. 

Most of the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.

The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Poetic Parody: "AS WE NUKE IT"

                                                                                                                                                                                         

                    
POETIC PARODY (reprinted)

ORIGINAL POEM:  Jaques' Monologue, Act iii, Shakepeare's "As You Like It".

POETIC PARODY: Nucl Med Commun 2002 and Photon 2004; modified with permission of the author (G.A. Hurwitz).

SONGLINK: See also our sister blog "SILLY SONGS AND SATIRE", post #3, where this poem has been considerably modified and set to music ("The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", 1976 by Gordon Lightfoot).

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, 2013.

AS WE NUKE IT (Poetic parody)

All the world's a scan,

And all its ins and outs are Nuclear’s patients.

They have their statics, and their cine-modes,

And each head which rotates views many parts;

The PACS lists their registrations.....At first the milkscan —

Pooling of puking in the basal lungs:

Then, refluxing schoolgirl for her cysto,

With brimming bladder bright, curling her toes

Unwillingly to void: and then the scrotal —

Orchitis like fire, or a wakened Uro

Scrubbed for his torted testis:  then a bleeder,

Full of tinned cells, blood labelled in the lab,

Nil found by scopes, yet suddenly maroon-stooling,

Seeking the blip extravasation

Anywhere from antrum south:  and then, shunt-study —

Tube blocked in belly, with good CT down,

His eyes rolled back, us free-of-latex gloved,

Hakim or Pudenz bulged with fluid clear;

And so we draw it off.....The next is slotted

For the diuretic renogram,

Nephrostomy in place and pouch on flank,

His useful side, well drained by frusemide

(as we Brits say), but his big kidney’s counts

Rising again and portending trouble, no peaks

Or downturns in its curve.....Last scan of all,

That aids nocturnal transplant surgery —

Cerebral countlessness, then world-matched-donoring,   

Bank organs, yank tubes, and thank certainty.

REVERSING VERSE: classic wordplay, palindromes#1

 

This post is the initial offering related to 'CLASSIC BIDIRECTIONAL WORDPLAY'. You can work through 40-or-so brief poems dealing with the classic palindromes, by following the links at the end of each of the seven posts. 

CURRENT CONTENTS (#1):
A dim 'No!' from Ida.
A man, a plan ...
A Santa at NASA.
A Toyota's a Toyota.
Able ere Elba.
An igloo! Cool, Gina!

Please note that beyond this point in the presentation, there will be an exclusive correlation between green italicized font and palindromes (phrases or sentences whose letters are ordered identically when they are read backwards as well as forwards)

For more "classic palindromes", please proceed to the second bidirectional journey by clicking  HERE.