Flagons & Dragons

Syllabic Burmese Poetry Gone Wrong

The Than-Bauk is a Burmese style of poetry that comprises three lines of four syllables each, with the fourth syllable of the first line rhyming with the third syllable of the second line, and the second syllable of the third line rhyming with the third syllable of the second line.

That was a horrifically confusing explanation, so here’s a representation of how it looks:

xxxR
xxRx
xRxx

Than-Bauks are typically epigrams, which is a word I had to Google. If you want to pretend you knew the definition, I won’t have to tell you it’s supposed to be succinct and some variation of clever, satirical, witty, or humorous.

I don’t know if I’ve accomplished any of those things, but I wrote seven poems (which sounds more impressive than it looks) and hope at least one of them gets a passing grade.

Starving
Ideas come
Sprinkled crumbs of
Cake rum dessert

Eyes Open
All of my dreams
Rise like beams with
No seams to see

To Hope Again
Within this thought
A distraught scream
To naught outside

Hair of the Dog
Flying dragons
Chase wagons for
Flagons to spill

Seeing
Inside teacups
Fate warms up for
Grownups trying

Work Politics
Unhappy clown
Never frown while
Nose brown uptown

Selfies
Perfectly dressed
Self-obsessed and
No zest, forlorn

These were so much fun to write. If you feel like giving this style a shot, please tag me so I can taste your creations with my eyes.

Stay tuned for my upcoming poem about the birth of teeth. Many thanks to Ricardo Guzman Jr for that prompt. He’s writing a poem about the death of beards, so you should check out his page.

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