Drawn Onward by Felicia Lamport extended by Joel Adams The learned men of Rome could turn a palindrome but they were not the first. For Adam, says the myth, began conversing with a sentence that reversed: "Madam, I'm Adam" seemed a phrase to be esteemed the moment it was popped. But that was not to be - his lady instantly said "Eve" which left it topped. Eve damned Eden; mad Eve bore two sons, as goes the fable, the first named Cain, a maniac, who slew his brother Abel. He lived as a devil, eh? Violence begat violence, until today we panic in a pew, the cycle turns anew and descendents of Ned Ludd -- dumb mobs -- bomb mud. Asked his favorite dessert, Archimedes said, "I prefer PI" And Napoleon, post-Josephine, mused, "Able was I, ere I saw Elba," as he met his Waterloo, confused. Anonymous, the most prolific bard, can boast of being host to these: "Was it a car or a cat I saw ?" "Some men interpret nine memos." "Lewd did I live, evil I did dwel." "Sex at noon taxes." "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!" "Stop, murder us not, tonsured rumpots!" "Straw? No, too stupid a fad. I put soot on warts." "Doc, note: I dissent. A fast never prevents a fatness. I diet on cod." "Kay, a red nude, peeped under a yak." and that marvel of marvels: "Sit on a potato pan, Otis!" What span, what palindromic bliss! I've wrung the alphabet repeatedly to get a Janus-phrase so spry at backwards somersaults. But as each hope turns false, in words, alas, drown I.