Age—It's All the Rage

* * *


101213

DECISIONS,
DECISIONS

Colon or semi?
I haven’t a clue.
Maybe a dash
or comma will do.

You think prose
is hard? Well, foo!
Just try poems;
they’ll try you.


101212

EARTH DAYS

“What a party;
but look at the hour!”

“Hey, old folks!
Yeah, hey YOU—
what are you
still doing here?”

“Frankly, we
don’t have a clue.
Take it up with
your Higher Power.”


101211

AS IS

Mean. Funny.
Friendly. Sad.

Of people,
little kids
don’t think
should be,
shouldn’t be.
What they
think is—is.


101210

WISDOM AND GRACE

Youth is the time
when life’s blessings are granted—
and taken for granted.

Old age is the time
when (to those who haven’t
already become wise)
life grants its greatest
understanding and blessing—
appreciation.


101209

IMPERMANENCE

Frost and green grass?
That won’t last long!


101208

UNBLEMISHED

Snarl, bite, curse,
do far worse;
my soul knows yours
as lustrous, pure.

The more troublesome
you become
(the more you break the rules,
attempting to break out
of the broken state you’re in),
the more you win
the love I’ve won myself
and now can do no other
than to offer.


101207

CARTOON AVATARS

One friend is a little stinker;
another, a happy cat.
There's a turtle, a top-cat, a martian—
and what-the-sam-heck is THAT?
There's a smiley one, a wiley one,
a minnie and a mighty one.
One's ghostly, one's speedy, one's jolly,
and one is blue, by golly.
There's a loopy one, a boopy one...
and I'm the snoopy artist one.


101206

CHRISTMAS PARADE

Winter dark and winter cold
seek something wondrous to behold:
like this festival of sound and light
that sparkles ‘round the town tonight.

Flatbed trucks transform to floats.
Beauty queens forego their coats.
Boom-boom-BOOM! The band plays loud.
Everyone’s enchanted… proud.
And there are angels in the crowd


101205

BEST FEATURE

Ours is a too-cold,
too-warm house.
It’s fairly open,
so we go barefoot
in the upstairs rooms
and sweatered down below.

One wall consists of windows
a full two stories high.
It only costs some northern cold
to view that northern sky.


101204

"SOCIAL" GROUPS

From surprise to frustration
and, ultimately, prayer;
group interactions
so often take me there.


101203

LOWER-CRUST
REBELLION

Don't call us crass,
or second class,
or dumb.

Don’t press us
under thumb.

We’ve been peons
for eons;
now that’s done.

You say cream floats—
but so does scum.


101130

THEY KNOW NOT
WHAT THEY DO

People
make so many people
miserable,
insisting on making them
happy.


101129

DEATH’S DOOR

Am I completely—
or just partly—mortal?

To my knowledge,
I’ve not yet
crossed that portal.


101128

LATEST TOPIC

Old age this.
Old age that.
What’s the fascination?

Discovery,
at least by me,
that it’s dilation,
not contraction.


101127

FEASTS FOR THE SENSES

Delights! Delights!
Everywhere and every when—
from last song of swan
to first note of wren.

Something’s always brewing.
Something’s always cooking.

Surely you haven’t stopped looking!


101126

IN WINTER COLD

Some written warmth
can be a shawl,
or a filling-in
of a chink in a wall.


101125

JO’S GIRLS (for my sibbles)

Five Little Peppers—
how they grew!

We wanted
to be like them, too;
poor and loving,
curious, bold.

We grew those ways,
and also old.


101124

MY COY MUSE-TRESS

I asked her help, a little.

She asked me a riddle:
What rhymes with "muse?"

"Come on, come on!"
she laughed. "Refuse!"


101123

FINALLY
QUALIFIED

Think about it—
if anybody’s
going to
explore and
write about
old age;
don’t you think
it should be
an old person?


101122

MIRROR MIRAGE

When I press upward
on my cheeks,
my younger face is there;
a toppled doppelgänger.
I must be careful not to stare.


101121

MINOR SHIFT

Once there was
a little girl
who loved to
(not write!) color.

Now she writes,
most every day,
some little thing
or other.


101120

HUMANS BEING

Their thoughts and acts stay bloody,
but reasons why stay muddy.
They fiercely study, but scarcely guess,
the whys of their perniciousness.


101119

RETRACTIONS

I don’t put pomes
on my action list
but very rarely
are they missed,
(except for times
when I’m feeling dull;
then, much I write,
I quickly cull).


* * *

Pets and Predicaments

* * *


101118

COUNTER POINT

"Tick-tock," goes the clock
that hangs on the wall.

"Tock-tick," claims another
just down the hall.

"Ding-dong, both wrong!"
a third chimes in.
"I am music; you're just din."


101117

ESCAPEES

There's a mouse in the house,
I suspect—just look how
this bedroom is wrecked.

A chipmunk’s misplaced—
this I know—brought in by the cat.
Where'd it go?


101116

COUNTING THE MINUTES

Muse, it's 5:19 a.m.
That's awfully late.
Was I stood up?
I thought we had a date.


101115

PERCHANCE TO DREAM

Things get precious,
just by being rare—
like that thing that knits
the raveled sleeve of care.


101114

MEDITATION
DIRECTIONS

“Breathe—slow—in,
through the nose,
to a count of seven;
hold another count,
then let it out—
through the mouth—
at that same pace.”

(Then pass out?
Nothing was given
about when
to breathe again.)


101113

LOVE TAKES A TOLL (for Emma)

A year of your pet's life
equals seven of yours.
(About.)
(Depending.)

Life with a cat or dog
(a typical choice)
can be heart-rending
as it grows up—
for how it acts up
and what it gets into.

On a cat, you cain't
impose restraint
or, on a cur, a curfew.

Pets take a toll.

This formula occurs:
For every year of your pet’s life,
take off one of yours.


101112

DOUBLE DOWN

I thought “depressed”
meant sad and bad,
but now I know—
it just means low
and oh… so… slow.


101111

QUESTIONS
OF TALENT

Did I—do I—
have a gift?
Did I lose it?
Am I hiding it
even from myself?


101110

IN POEM COUNTRY

Up with the chickens,
then up with the owls;
I’m not one
to throw in the towel.

A poem is something
to not postpone;
I could write ‘em
till the cows come home.


101109

SIMPLE MINDED

You are there.
I am not.
That's the thought
I just thought.


101108

SORCERER’S APPRENTICE

Leonard Cohen, for a poem,
used a book of rhymes.
I use one for mine; that’s the scoop.

Here’s my favorite group:
aquatic, chaotic, despotic,
erotic, exotic, hypnotic,
narcotic, neurotic,
psychotic, quixotic, robotic

Building blocks, rhyme-words are—
keys-and-locks, gears for clocks,
ingredients for a cake;
myriad combinations
for myriad things to make—
including exotic spells to cast
and chaotic spells to break.


101107

IT WASN’T MUCH

“A walk in the park,”
that’s what they say—
and that’s what it was:
an easy cliché.

It wasn’t much—
nothing arduous,
explosive or clutched;
nothing that transcends.

It wasn’t much—
a casual outing
by two casual friends.
It wasn't much—

before our fingers touched.


101106

HEY, SANTA! (for Trevor)

This, for you,
should be a breeze—
put brake pads
in my stocking, please.


101105

I GIVE UP

Clothes, money, attention,
opinions, encouragement, advice,
aggravation…

It doesn’t seem to matter;
no matter what I give,
I get more than double in return.
What gives?


101104

EMPATHY NO MORE

I know you’re
upset about something
and I know you want me
to get upset along with you.
But I don’t want to.
Getting upset
makes me upset.


101103

OPERATIONAL LIMITS

Medicine, what is your tonic,
your remedy for grief?
What can you offer as relief
for pain, intense and chronic,
in bodies already half-bionic?


101102

CLOCKING OUT

Summer birds are seen no more;
sky is emptiness galore;
northern winds grow whippy;
days turn short and nippy;
jewel-toned leaves
that crowned the trees
have browned or blown away—
the year is calling it a day.


101101

BARGAINING WITH MY CAT

“Give me some inspiration,
Scout—to write about;
I’m in the mood.”

“Hmm. Well, don’t be rude;
give me something in return.
I’m in the mood for food.”


* * *