Clear as Night
In an ugly little room
By the side of the sea
The Sun still slow rises
For all, for you and for me.
With no gods, monsters, or ghosts;
We poor few make our own way
Thru the sadness of clashing agenda;
We’ve little room to have our say.
Yet so majestic the Sun claims honor-
Brooks no question, no how nor any why;
But once every twenty-eight days comes Luna
With the Full Moon to rule the sky.
All simple full answers do clever hide
To yield to the curious at the Hobnob.
Less surprised, we find, are all of us:
Of course you’re the one for the job!
A Far Off Chime
I heard the far-off chime of a church bell
I think it was Presbyterian
I was almost able to forget
What a terribly bad year we’re in
It pealed so sweet and so clear
Like winter’s first freshening breeze
But all memories and lingering hopes
Can give one such a sly slow tease
The leaves fall and muster at my door
I take my broom to give them a good sweep
They’ll all certainly return later in the day
Like some deathbed promise they must keep
Strewn across the darkening night sky
The stars twinkle thru the gathering cloud
Christmas carols float over across from the park
Brightening and cheering and not even quite half loud
Mantel clock chimes 10 o’clock, tis time to hit the hay
And yes I can truly say, it wasn’t all that bad a new day
Oh to be an Earthling
Oh to be an Earthling
They got golden sunrises and blood red sunsets
And they take their cats and dogs
and pigs and horsies and turn them all into pets
O to be an Earthling
With rain and sun and snow and humidity
But also smog and traffic with jams
And all sorts of songs reminding me of other stupidity
Oh to be Earthling
Hope Taylor Swift finds sleep some fine day
She seems to do her best fretting at four am
But after Red I’m sure we’ll all find a much better shiny way
Oh to be an Earthling
Football, marriages, first dates, birthing babies—
Which I don’t know nuthin about—
That glance from you while looking at me, all these maybes
Oh to be an Earthling
Christmas Day, El Eid, Chanukah, and Wesak
Glorious celebrations and the food
And the presents we never wanna ever give back
Oh to be an Earthling
The rivers and hills and dales and the coasts
All hidden behind borders and lines drawn in distant sand
All to support some tyrants tired mistaken stupid boasts
Oh to be Earthling
Who can learn and grow and extend hands in love
After posing, thinking, weighing, and looking for the high road
When all is so small beneath all those stars twinkling in a night sky above
Oh to be and Earthling
Music, books, movies, fudge, crawfish, gouda, and more
Champagne, merlot, chardonnay? The heck you say.
Such a plethora of plentitude with second helpings galore
Happy, healthy, safe and free
Won’t you be an Earthling with me?
A Golden Love
Found my own golden heart
Down around Craddock way
But the math was never right
And I let her sheen fade away.
As Fate would have it
Saw her again, so beautiful and free.
Frightened off by her smoke and kinder
I flaked off for a more southern honeybee.
Book of faces, and goodness, I can see her again.
The weighted years yet wall us off apart.
All is as it should be?
We were doomed from the start.
That’s not really true;
What would you do?
So young, so pretty, so innocent—
Was this really a love heaven sent?
This story now passes on:
A stilted speech now for a therapist calls.
Blind Passion has passed; all is well.
Love Never Dies, but sometimes aptly stalls.
Conscience Cries
Garrulous ghosties
Chasing pumpkin pie
All the little trumpies
Can never tell me why
Why must we act so
Ritten’s house has fallen
Do we really have to go this low
Someone’s conscious cries when callin’
A new call to prayer
In this dawn’s early light
To row this barge ashore
The muscles scream in pain’s dull bite
Overdubs in chintz glory
Faded actresses fade to black
Please don’t go to Kenosha
You’ll never find your way back
Innocent as the day is long
Why does everything go so wrong
US & N
Thought of traipsing up to Kenosha…
In the US&N, I’d been there before,
Lost my virginity in a cornfield nearby,
Some ages before I turned 24.
But got it all back again
At the Mardi Gras Ten & Jive.
Helps when you’re nevillized and radiated—
I was lucky to get out alive.
Don’t wanna buy a rittenhouse:
Upkeep is a sure killer,
Weeding out all that cnnapfox lice
And a frozen Lake Mich’gan is no moonwalk Thriller.
So, I’ll go play with my supply chain,
Order lots and lots of useless stuff for under the tree.
I only hope one day I’ll become Turpin Strong
Like Jordan and Jennifer; What, you talking to me?
#TurpinMeansStrong
Asuncion
All my words are collapsing
Piling up about my feet
To be totally honest
Would be quite the feat
Two glasses gone
And the walls aren’t even soft
Tried to attend the BBC
But can’t abide Bancroft
Turn up the stereo
Sorry y’all in 401
But the Friday has just come
And some loud hasn’t even begun
My hi-div stocks are up
Why am I so down
Growing old disgracefully
A plan not aforethought nor very sound
Rads on eleven!
What does the arresting officer say?
Shining in the deep—
What’s the damn capital of Paraguay?
Words fail me so prettily
With male baldness showing
With all this global warming
Why is it snowing
You’ve No Power Here
The glass misted over,
But that’s not entirely right
It was a more liquid remorse
That bedewed my lensed sight
She had borne my child
But she couldn’t bear me
Seems 8-balls and feng shui
Aren’t long together friends-to-be
Another dark winter passing
Cold fronts, love chill, and lost friends—
In the negative balance amassing:
All aspiration to the living Nature bends
Where is our Episode IV New Hope,
In reconciliation or masked medicines?
A new maturity is whispered for and called upon—
Can we but rise up above all these civil venal sins?
Digital Sith and Jedi return to the nursery;
All illusion is dead, what’s to become of me?
Halloween Proposal
A waxing moon slides behind its darkening shroud,
The north wind turns around and blows icy,
Lily’s shrieking cat, hissing and mad, leaps free—
Halloween again? For crying out loud
Rustling costumes all bloody-black, and orange
Infect the no longer still neighborhood streets;
Such scareful dress of cotton and pilloried sheets,
Can you say any of this could be called strange?
Old dry bones, witches on brooms aflight;
Goblins, ghosties, things that bump and boom
Seizing All Souls as terror grabs up all the room;
All present and correct on this October night
Bags and bags and bags candied-full fattening sweet
Await careful parental inspection and sure disposal—
Eat it all! Quite an impossible and silly proposal,
Despite your earnest best cast spell: Trick or Treat!
Kitt
pueriles 