If you have a question, why don't you ask?
Why must you introduce it with this cry?
Posing a question is a simple task
Complicating it thus, my nerves will fry!
Verbal false limbs irritated Orwell
Giving sentences seeming symmetry
Verbs become phrases to cast a dark spell
Cluttering language's clean clarity
Rather than state that you have a question
Why not cut fat and let the muscle work?
Send these syllables to oblivion
Ask away and cease to be such a jerk!
Ours is an age in need of good questions
Pose them boldly, without these gyrations!
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NB: Orwell's finest, curmudgeonly complaints about grammar and style and their effects on our minds and lives can be found below (I am not sure if the superfluous statement, "I have a question" lives up to his definition of a "verbal false limb" exactly, but I think it is lifeless and ubiquitous, like "render inoperative" or "militate against"):
About the Creator
D. J. Reddall
I write because my time is limited and my imagination is not.
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Comments (3)
I know that this isn't what you meant but your poem reminded me of people who text me and say "Hey, can I ask you a question?" And then just disappears! Like freaking just directly ask the question! Jeez!
Perfection.
Interesting. I hate question marks at the end of questions. They make my whole page hesitate!