Slenderizing

Slenderizing is a simple enough method; it consists merely of removing all instances of a given letter from a source text. The catch is that the resulting text must make sense, i.e., all the remaining words must be actual words. (Dearth becomes death, or dire becomes die, to give two macabre examples.) What results is, of course, a lipogram, albeit one that is especially frustrating to compose.

The poem below and its slenderized progeny are both originals.

The Breach

I grazed on a prawn as the ocean roiled
Through nights as sinuous as cinema reels,
Saw youths doing ninety, then braking, coiled,
Each breast streaming sweat behind each wheel.

In the breach, feet always trapped on the gas,
Death was the wager that caused them to stray.
The strand’s portent wind was howling for crash,
But the drivers disdained the warning of the day.

I sipped Sprite and gin, as the teenage vixens
All watched with a heart that crackled in sin;
Seeing these beaus in tempestuous frictions
Built up to a craving to shred the day’s skin.

The maddening drip of time’s unending tricks
Dissolved as they laughed at the farce of the gods,
While I creased my brow, feeling branded and sick
By my ceaseless compulsion to pray to the clock.

*

The Beach

I gazed on a pawn as the ocean oiled,
Though nights as sinuous as cinema eels
Saw youths doing ninety, then baking, coiled,
Each beast steaming sweat behind each wheel.

In the beach, feet always tapped on the gas;
Death was the wage that caused them to stay.
The stand’s potent wind was howling for cash,
But the dives disdained the waning of the day.

I sipped spite and gin, as the teenage vixens
All watched with a heat that cackled in sin;
Seeing these beaus in tempestuous fictions
Built up to a caving to shed the day’s skin.

The maddening dip of time’s unending ticks
Dissolved as they laughed at the face of the gods,
While I ceased my bow, feeling banded and sick
By my ceaseless compulsion to pay to the clock.