Shortness of Breadth...

On the poetry front, it seems that pride of place for brevity belongs to the author of “Fleas,” a poem often attributed to Ogden Nash but actually written by Strickland Gillilan. (Note: Gillilan did not call it “Fleas”— but rather, "Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes")  and it reads in its entirety: 

LINES ON THE ANTIQUITY OF MICROBES 

by Strickland Gillilan

Adam

Had 'em.

But claim to the concision crown is in dispute and a brief search reveals that another distinguished poet had topped Gillilan when...

Undated poem by Ali entitled King James Brown

Muhammed Ali concluded his  commencement speech to the senior class at Harvard and someone in the audience shouted out “Give us a poem” ... Ali  didn’t hesitate before shouting back:

Me! Whee!

And I'm sure lurking somewhere is a collection of other brief efforts to wrest control of the category for whatever honor that might confer...but rather than troll for those, I'll close the poetry piece of this post with something  considerably more substantial -- it's one of many penned by an old  friend whose eloquence  is matched by his bass playing skills, defense law accomplishments and handball court prowess.  This one resonates all the more for me after having recently spent a week vacationing on the Island of St. Lucia.

Bahamas Vacation: 1985

by Jeremy L. Goldberg ( from Real Men Love Witches: 13 Poems.  c.2000)

In the middle of Nassau lie beautiful lakes

Visible through the wrecks lining the broken road.

Tourists glut their part of town; the rich, behind barbed

Wire, reside near the refinery.  Baha-

Mians are barred from the casinos, and brilliant

Sun, in any month, can burn a fair -skinned basker.

(Again, please pardon the formatting sloppiness, The Blogspot Despots are at it again, "improving" the system to insure continued blogger pain and suffering) 

Theodor Geisel used the name Dr. Seuss not only for his children’s books, which began with the 1937 classic, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, but also for the lesser-known, but just as striking, editorial cartoon work he did during WWII years in the progressive magazine PM and then for the War Production Board. 

An oft recurring topic with Geisel