(1994)
Republished by permission from "Lyric," Vol. 74, No. 3
#DescriptiveHumorousQuatrain
Once within his grinding life He’d had a chance at distant deeds That had no hint of daily strife, Of sticking doors, tenacious weeds… Of time cards, office drudgery,
Just off a country road a balding… Reclines in spring upon a pinkish… Of dogwood, which on any better da… Supports, at least in poems, a “fe… Or, worse, that “lifts to God its…
When it comes to a war or driving… I do both to some stirring ovation… In fights I’m a scuffler and my c… So I’m ready for all provocations… For it’s very well known that test…
The meter of this poem will be like ticks of a clock — no, I mean, ticks of clocks. On contemplation of my navel I see only what appears to be
Gimme That Ole-Time Religion Needy ancients were aggrieved If prayers’s goals were not achiev… And beat the god in stone or tree For what they thought its treacher…
I hate Shaw with his absurd postu… who want to get in his pants to ca… I hate Henry James for writing se… it takes a cryptologist to figure… I hate Hemingway for his drunken…
Savage Customs Dakota Indians placed a seed insi… The mouths of those they buried, a… A small but sturdy seedling gratif… The tribe, new life ascending from…
He makes a mild volley, teasingly, with a wry smile, condescending to her female fragil… but she strokes a rather sharp ret… whereupon he responds a little har…
Florida Road Kill Solemn buzzards robed in sable, Convene pro tem at death’s fruitio… A flattened armadillo as their tab… And corpus for their disquisition.
ODE TO TESTOSTERONE… When it comes to a war or driving… I do both to some stirring ovation… In fights I’m a scuffler and my c… So I’m ready for all provocations…
Give Me That Old-Time Religion As one New Yorker said, the guy w… You in New York, your wallet as h… At least has goals, unlike the oth… Who kill and maim and have no aim…
System Restore I punched one day a strange comput… That spawned an endless lunatic pa… Across the screen of visual debris That I could not remove, still wo…
A scarlet glint across a forest fl… Though distant, lured me from a la… To find what seemed a solitary fl… But proved instead a garish cola c… The brazen glare against the sprin…
Sure, ask who died, and ask why J… Won’t have Brad’s baby, whom she’… Read how the princess slept with h… See Mary’s image on a slice of br… Get proof that so-and-so’s a murde…