A Strange Choice.

There once was a man, a medical man,

who fell hard for a lady skeleton;

he gave her deep looks and lent her some books,

but feelings she had none for the gentleman.

To be liked by her, he would be like her,

it thus becoming his ambition

of all excess to rid his flesh;

so, for months, he forewent all nutrition.

Bit by bit his bones were stripped

of all that would his frame disguise,

until his limbs were sticks, curled back his lips,

and from hollows stared his eyes.

Whether just sad or downright mad,

this can be debated;

but, just before the last, he was heard to gasp:

'It is consummated!'