Sequins!

Spring has sprung, the grass is risen
And out of their dark and dreary prison
The sequins come from everywhere,
They're in my eyes, they're in my hair!

I've watched them from the bedroom ooze.
I've even found them in my shoes!
I've felt their dreadful horrid bite
While trying to get to sleep at night.

Although I thought they'd never stoop,
They're holding swim meets in my soup!
I cannot stand it, I can't go on,
I'm sure I saw those creatures spawn!

My wife, she says, "Be patient Dear,
You know it's just that time of year
When little girls begin to prance
And in recitals want to dance."

Well, as for me, I've had enough.
I cannot take this kind of stuff!
Those shiny, sparkly, colored lice;
I was patient once, but this makes twice!!

"HELP ME!", someone, I beg of you!
I'll take pneumonia, even flu,
But help me rid my humble house
Of this shiny, sparkly, colored louse!!!

Written while my wife was sewing dance costumes for at least a "million" little girls. 1985

Fat Cat!

Little pellets, in my little house,
Betray therein a little mouse.
I'm not sure what to make of that?
I think I'll speak with my "little" cat!

January 2009

Dixie Red and Blue

Something there is in Dixie that doesn’t like outsiders!
You’d think since I was born there I’d be welcome there beside her.
I visit there quite frequently with nothing ever due
Then abruptly pay the piper with the flashing red and blue.

Its not that I am of a mien to repudiate jurisprudence,
I never speed of habit, I’m afraid that I’m just too dense
To pay the due attention to that handy roadside signage
And spare my wife and children from senseless financial peonage!

If ever you pass a limit sign with a crooked road impending,
You can bet you’ll find a constable hidden amongst the bending!
Don’t even think to pass a cop! Do not capitulate!
Lest you expose that sticker, there on your backside plate!

Its in the cosmos, zen and true; a balance must be gained.
Those who are “in” in Dixie, enjoy yet are never pained.
But those of us outsiders, when a “red rock” fix we’re pining,
Must cautious be, almost covert, if we’d avoid the fining!

2008

Cyber Czar

I have witnessed something lately, its really quite bizarre!
My colleagues’ time is all used up by the evil Cyber Czar.
They sit all day in meetings and talk on that speaker thing.
And when they’re not consumed by that, they stare at computer screens.

They hide in closed door meetings, hushed, and all clandestine.
And threaten all who enter there they’ll tear out their intestines!
They dream up threats unspeakable, things that go bump in the night.
The kind of things that scare kids stiff and make your hair turn white!

Rumor says it won’t be long before we’ll see some changes,
Geriatric cyber-scouts to deal with all this strangeness.
And a fence on the west-side desert? It makes my head just spin.
I hope when they install barbed wire, it isn’t facing in!

A Salmon's Tale

Two brothers salmon in the deep blue sea
Got the urge one day to seek some revelry.
So off they both went into the early dawn
With naught on their minds but to swim and spawn.

Up the big river with its mouth so wide,
It must be a mile from side to side.
For days and days those two fish swam
‘Til they ran smack-dab into a concrete dam!

Round and round that great grey wall
They swam, but found no help at all.
Relief came, not from heaven sent,
But sure enough from the government!

A big fish ladder with its lifts and falls
Helped those boys to skirt that wall
Into a lake with its shores so green
The two fish entered on another scene!

As if decreed by constabulary
The lake was fed by five tributaries!
“Which one to take?”, was their question then,
The answer came to the first brother Sven.

“I know where to go”, you could hear him say,
“I’ve been here before! I can find the way!”
So off Sven went, and his brother, Pete, too;
Guided by nothing but Deja Vu!

The stream they chose was swift and clean
But the rocks therein were hard and mean!
Bruised and battered Ol’ Pete said, “ENOUGH!”
“This swim-and-spawn life is just too rough!”

“Swimming all day against the stream?”
“This might be for you Sven, but it ain’t my dream!”
So he turned with the current and went with the flow,
Against his true nature, to the blue sea below.

He passed other salmon, in their eyes was a gleam,
All turning red as they struggled upstream.
Pete was red too from his tail to his face.
When he reached the blue sea, he seemed out of place.

The swimming was easy, with no current to fight,
But Pete couldn’t know of his fate nor his plight.
A flashy red Pete in the bright blue dawn
A sea lion spied him and SNAP! Pete was gone!

In the mean time, Sven kept on swimming for days;
His back out of water in the warm summer rays.
He made his way to a cool sandy brook
And spied a coy babe-fish with a cute little look.

And there on the edge of a loose gravel shoal,
They frolicked and played and fulfilled their role:
They had both done their best; standing out in a crowd.
Sven also died, but his maker is proud!

This tale has a moral, as all good tales do.
A metaphor of life, it is tried and true:
“Swimming through life is no simple feat,
Endure to the end, or end up like Pete!”

Meadow Lark

Piercing frosty morn
Larksong fills my soul with hope;
Harbinger of spring


Written for our dear friend, Patriarch Young. He loved meadowlarks!

November

Have you ever eaten turkey, and a great big pumpkin pie with cranberries, candied yams and potatoes piled high? Have you ever worn a downy coat or pajamas soft and warm? Can you remember Daddy’s soft embrace protecting you from harm? We have so much to be thankful for, like family, kind and dear. November helps us all reflect, and makes this fact so clear. This month when you head off to bed but find it hard to sleep, Count your blessings, one-by-one, instead of counting sheep! 

Happy Easter

It’s Easter Time! And Spring is here; a special time of year!
When plants come out of tough old seeds; new life is everywhere!
Baby chicks break out of eggs, a hard ol’ crackly shell.
New animals are born each day, and that’s how we can tell
That Jesus loves us, every one, His heart is full of room!
‘Cause on that very first Easter morn, He broke forth from His tomb
And saved us all from being scared of death and pain and strife
So we could then return to God and live a happy life!

To my grandchildren at Easter 2009

Awakening

A dashing young bookworm from Cook
Did fine until he mistook
That fiction and fable
Will put food on the table.
You can’t eat the page of a book!

KaWhooosh!

There once was a young man from Brittany
Whose talents would make quite a litany.
But they all went for naught
When this young man forgot
Not to smoke in a field of White Dittany!

2008