Not to end on such a dark note, can I propose that the last limerick be the first of a linked pair?
By the rules of this game the person who ended the last limerick can begin the new one, so....
The trials of Jack and Ennis
who were totally without pennies
Each had only the other
Ennis had no mother
They were dogged by privation and menace.
But as lotuses grow from the mire