Saturday, November 5, 2011

Nice Valentine

You’d think we’d all know
by now what ‘nice’ meant
how it derives from a Mongolian
mispronunciation of the much
longer but unfortunately lost
name for a small woodland
gazelle-like creature now extinct
in one version a Dionysius-like
figure tricked out as a wild woman
is brought before his doom
and then rescued by a very nice
person in a gazelle disguise
simple foolish ignorant
up until the 17th c.
pleasant friendly attractive
since the 18th c.

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