Nothing more frustrating trying damndest to kindle memory

(buzzfeeding, kickstarting, needling darn noggin)

An effort to recall word, phrase,

musician... indigenous tribe...

most frustrating literary

endeavor to das scribe

aggravating enough to sub

bourbon spur teetotaler to imbibe

and/or nsync, whereby soul searching

devil's advocate demands bribe.

Lil brokeback Engelbert Humperdinck

(born Arnold George Dorsey) bent edict coercion

(think sexual mores)

scaring stripes off blushing zebra

bunched unencumbered vice pliable straw

aforementioned pablum admittedly "fake"

birthed within cerebral tenderloin

of impractical joker,

whereby fifty plus shades

of gray matter (mine)

chafed and rubbed raw

prevarication playfully did overdraw

and tax poetic license writ courtesy this paw

poor putz offal declension

sprouted within mum maw

noun tent to verb (bull eyes - red) to draw

flak, but merely to harmlessly entertain

so accept apologies (mine)

verses calling strong (lanced) arm of law.

I (garden variety poetaster) reckon fair game

media personalities grist for rumor mill, though lame

explanation given (funny first and surname)

adopted by supposed "finest middle-of-the-road

balladeers around," who co opted his stage name

from authentic Engelbert Humperdinck; selfsame

prodigy circa 1 September 1854 –

27 September 1921

German composer, who wrote, I gently exclaim

the opera Hansel and Gretel - a Grimm fairytale

actually frightful saga - read countless times

setting me boyhood imagination aflame

with mailer daemons, who haunted dreams

(mine) 'course in retrospect material tame

compared/contrasted with current pandemic

analogous as if mother Earth -

a metaphorical dame

experiencing long overdue reprieve, cuz shame

on Homo sapiens belching pollutants

at any price to garner fortune and fame.