It started simply enough, as these things do. My father, who runs a Poetry Blog of his own, had emailed wondering how many of his siblings and progeny suffered casual recall of “lamebrain lyrics”, of which he offered “In my adobe hacienda/There’s a touch of Me-hi-co“.

This generated a number of fitful replies, mostly quoting novelty songs of widely varying pedigree. My sister Lynn ultimately (mis) quoted the Groucho Marx song, “Show Me a Rose”: “Show me a rose/and I’ll show a doe at bay“. Unable to resist the lifelong urge to needle my older sister, I gently responded, “A STAG at bay, you yutz. Does don’t bay.” A witticism that in less than ten words reuses the word “bay” incorrectly, but still, allowances must be made for repartee. This immediately drew the following original composition from my sister Barb:

By then the waning gibbous moon
Will have risen in the East
Over Jebel Ali Free Zone
And those bread things that don’t use yeast
And sadly I’ll unwind my turban
And sadly say goodbye
To the skittering sands and the outlaw bands
And the baying does of Dubai

I stand corrected.