A Safe Place

I’ve lost that place to let a tear;
My heart’s gone to its safe place.
How could things go so wrong?
What new horrors must we face?

Barricades fall from Seattle town,
But nothing’s better, not at all.
I’ve no stamp for my letter
Begging to be allowed to call.

Things today sing with a minor key,
But youngin there’s just one thing:
Passion stills, for just a moment, the longing—
Yet loneliness in old age still prides its sting.

Did she survive the novel virus?
Will she return to us fully alive?
Glasses for all to share the sauterne!
Breathe the air! Dance! Sing! Thrive!

I’ve lost the time to shed a tear,
My words go without a decent rhyme,
The End: how will we deeply know?
What new pain unfolds with wrinkled time?

Fathers’ Day In Quarantine

Ya know she smiles loud
Cuz she’s got all them teeth
But don’t take my word for it
I’m pretty far from beyond belief
All I truly know is better days coming week after next
I know this to be quite true
Cuz it says so in my daughter’s last text

Daughter conquers the days
With a lot more stress than I do
Pouring over hiragana squiggles
A looming test is messing with her artist’s do—
A perfect score in her Summer Japanese (!!!)
Brought my little brilliant girl
Down to her very studious knees!

Soon one far day she’ll marry
And support her brilliant kid’s studies
Skinned knees, broken arms,
Betrayal by once assumed close buddies.
And I’ll wish she finds all the joys
Such awesome women usually discover
Uncovering men buried inside hapless little boys

Tis quiet over on the cul-de-sac
‘Specially when I turn down my stereo
But it’s another Fathers’ Day
So turning Yes’ Starship Trouper to eleven, doncha know!
Singing along with the best dead rock stars
But what on Earth can we do—
We can’t go to restaurants, movies, or bars

An unassuming liquid red
Half fills this humble glass
Cabernet Sauvignon from over Sonoma way—
Wish I was sharing with my own sparkle-eyed lass.
But now time to rewash this mask:
Such varied fun in lockdown
Filled with this new time-worn vital task.

Yes please do come on over
To my wee cool place,
Always room in Alexandria
For one such as you and your happy pretty face!
We can play all the latest games,
Or uncover our darker tragedies,
Then smartly resolve them with neat effectual reframes!

Ya know he smiles loud
Cuz he’s got all them flossed teeth
But don’t take my word for it
I’m pretty far from beyond belief
All I truly know is better days coming week after another
I know this to be quite literally true
Cuz it says so in a text from my encouraging but distant brother

[PS Stay home, stay safe, practice the best proper social distance
Or may a gravid moose find relief in the spaces within your pants!]

Corona Gone

The sun fell down,
And broke its crown,
The dollars came tumbling after.
Sneezles and dweebles
Racked up all the peoples,
Drowned out in all the laughter.
Maybe you ought take a pill
And go for a finer thrill;
Tomorrow may never come.
Tis a long way home
Where you’re far from Rome;
Make sure your pickle is dill.
He’s got all the ventilators
Certified by prime aggregators;
Are you sure his lapel mic’s on?
Forget Southern Nights,
Time for Last Rites,
She’s gonna be corona gone.
How do you give someone a hug
Keeping six feet apart on a rug?
May I ask: are you a believer?
Tell everyone I love them so,
And I will miss them when I go—
This morning I got up with a fever…

Passion’s Wreck

Another wink inappropriately sent across the room
As I savor the dream of the salt at the base of your neck
Though there is no way this goes ever anywhere
Adrift in the Acadien gutter of this passion wreck

Swirling skirts reel to a hot cajun beat
The Artsmophere swells with Sebastien pours
Wanna go home with me, my belle jolie?
The answer is always: mais non, tous le jours

She glories in the morning, then rules the night
But my quiver emptied long many years ago
But Love never wearies as longing grips ever tight
Though my sad offer would hardly sate a wound so

So unreconstructed in Alexandria, my tall glass half full
Dreams and wishes mingling in a nice vigne rouge
Grateful for my morning porridge and café gratuit
Let’s get to it, cross that bridge at Baton Rouge

Scream down the 10 all the way to New Orleans—
A quarantino not quite following these isolation rules
65 and dying even before comes this Chinese bugger
Not sure anyone knows, besides, they’re all tools!

Again, still half marveling at the sweat beading about your neck
Dreaming in an Acadien gutter fouled by Old Love’s passion wreck

Sign True

So, my best never my best ever friend
Got burnt all the way down to her roots
But she’s roaring back, just ask Goodwill
With a new attitude that her perfectly suits—
Don’t offer me flowers
Don’t offer me fine wine
Just be real for once
Show me a true sign
That I count as much
As the future you divine

Texted into the night and then called
Quite the fulsome love story
Ruined by a rich tortured soul
Oh, my poor Morninglory—
Don’t offer me flowers
Don’t promise hot dice
Just hear me one time
That I am worth as much
As this shiny Mercury dime

And so the night got enough old
For her to make her goodnight
So the story folded right there
My heart still wrapped up cold and tight—
Didn’t pledge her flowers
Didn’t promise her better days
Just want to be worthy
To share my humble love sign
That she’ll always exceed
Any future we’d dare to design

Quarantino

So, it seems I gave up coffee
And I WANT a cup RIGHT NOW
To return to a fresh-dripped state
Of magnificent equanimity
Seems six feet apart
Isn’t far enough away
You want meaningfulness
I just wanna play
So, Bob be a-singing
Right out of Delacroix
I earnestly proffer love praises
That only seem to clomp and annoy
Turning away to wash my hands
But I’m the only one here—
I’d rather my glass of merlot
To your frosty mug of beer.
But I’d wish to walk with you
Those years ago when we really loved,
But gotta change the kitty litter;
Thusly I’m now COVID-approved engloved!
Aqualung and I are looking for her
Far enough away to preserve the fantasy
Yet close enough to perturb the very air
Tossed tresses caressing languid eyes [oh so very fancy]
Back inside my little apartment
7PM Thursday in deliberate sub quarantino
Dreamt of eyes pulsing from behind a 95 mask:
This has got to end—momentum arresto!

19 (In Quarantine)

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away,
In quarantine
Surpassing all kings, powerful and tall beyond all others,
In quarantine
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive,
In quarantine
Call me Ishmael,
In quarantine
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
In quarantine
It’s been a hard day’s night,
In quarantine
Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote,
In quarantine
Dr. Andrew Scott loved coming into the school in August,
In quarantine
Dites-moi, pourquoi, la vie est belle,
In quarantine
This land is your land,
In quarantine
We the people of the United States,
In quarantine
We bring the trains to you,
In quarantine
First the colors. Then the humans,
In quarantine
A robot may not injure a human being,
In quarantine
Every action done in company ought be done with some sign of respect to those that are present,
In quarantine
Preheat the oven to 425-degrees,
In quarantine
Sing a song, read a book, watch a movie, take a walk, bake some cookies,
In quarantine.

Unthought Feelings Deep

So by chance he espied a glance of your grinning soul
And as your witted smile warmed the dying man’s room
Your nursey self took charge to ask the daughter what’s up
While this pobre social worker heart upsoared—vroom!

Twas a broken wiper and no path to offer an assist
With appointments so varied and faraway to keep
Another fare-thee-well and a spare cheek unkissed
Seeing the ring, he buried unthought feelings deep

But when you’re a halfpenny
How do you compete with a coin of gold?
It’s just the same old thing—
A never to be love, the usual story oft told

But the angels came and spoilt this fine story
Took one heart but then left the other so alone
The prayers fell out all over for the one taken to glory
But in the dark the left behind keen and moan

Across the road, the river, the plains, and a state line
The hurt is shared but the yearning put up and folded away
Wishing for her many happy days and nights, cool and fine
And hush, maybe we can share a Texas sunset one easy day

Happy Valentine’s Day Faye

So at the Gates stood Conor
Awaiting his newest best friend.
Faye joined him eager yet sore confused,
This was no one’s idea of a good end

She’ll never be seven
She plays now in Heaven
And our tears yields no answers
To the never answered Oh God, Why?

Why did that thirty-something
Lose contact with his humanity?
Just playing outside in her front yard
These things are always so damn hard

Are we all so willfully and totally blind?
Is this some new flavor of miswrought insanity?
Our ocean awash in pain and despair—
There’s no satisfying answer, ever, anywhere.

Bad parenting, bullying, party drugs?
A chromosome split and expressed wrong?
Just why can’t this stop, just…please…stop!
Do we just let this go and let Pain chase erelong?

Faye and Conor skip off into the sunset,
We here, head in hands, perplexed and twisted.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Faye, and to you who still love;
While our tears coalesce with a countenance sorely misted.

Sour Grapes

Gave up my HRH
Throw’d out my Bible and my Koran
Looking for a new truth
Featuring Love of We, the Common Man
We all look up at the same starry sky
As I long for any lovely fellow Earthling
At the morning our Sun comes from the East
Why do we brothers treat each other like a thing?
Interred my aunt in the family crypt today
At the intersection of a reprisal and the forsaken
By four past post meridian it was all at last over
No love lost, no Southern faith left unshaken
Decoding lies from the curious misconstrued truths
I find time to raise chagrin with my toasting glass
In a hundred years no one’s gonna give a damn
George is right: all things, thank goodness, will pass
So at the end the poet lays down his pen
Not sure if he’ll ever bother to versify again