The Annotated Archy and Mehitabel

"every time i die it makes me more of a fatalist"
Thus proclaims Archy the free verse poet, after he is reincarnated as a cockroach. Generations of readers have delighted in these poems, which first appeared in the newspaper columns of the great American humorist Don Marquis. The saga revolves around the escapades of Archy (our narrator) and his pal Mehitabel, a streetwise alley cat who was once Cleopatra—and has the morals to prove it. Returned to life as the lowest creatures on the social scale, they prowl the rowdy streets of New York City in the age of jazz, gangsters, and Prohibition. Along the way they encounter mummies, ghosts, and the egocentric toad Warty Bliggens.
Introduction and noted by Michael Sims