Table For Two

The mirror hides
To our surprise
The younger me
Behind my eyes

Safe inside
This aging shell
Devouring pride
We’re dining well

Casualties Of War

Memorial Day
Let’s remember those who died
For going to school

A Happy Thought

Some stuffed animals
Don’t have dead, resentful eyes
Sewn into their heads

Still Life With Consequences

Don’t you hate when something great
And clearly worthy of repeating
Turns out later like that plate of
Fruit I’m now regretting eating?

Company Present Excepted

Our dining room’s the one in which is
Rarely ever found the dishes
Off of which we truly eats;
You’ll find them near the TV seats.
The dining table and its chairs
Respect our room as we do theirs;
On neither foreign floor is laid
A toe without obeisance paid:
“Your leave to enter, please, I begs,
My olive’s rolled beneath your legs.”
It strikes me, even as I write this,
There’s not been a versa vitecis
When the dining chairs or table
Asked to come and watch the cable,
And I have to think that thasso
Just ’cause they don’t know Ted Lasso.

Well, Actually…

The erudite among us will
Expound upon and speak with skill
On any topic that you’d care
To ask about, if that’s “hot air.”

Chlimera

If you cross a giraffe with a turtle,
That’s a remarkable hurdle.
Cross a turtle, though, with a giraffe
And that’s less impressive by half.

Present Company Excepted, Of Course

It used to be that Olden Days
Were not so old. We’ve come a ways
And bridged a lot of water since,
While staying in the present tense.
Subjectively, they’re oldener
Today, ergo, than once they were,
Although objectively it’s true
What’s really oldening is you.

All Culture Was Once Pop Culture, or What Do You Feed A Wooden Horse?

My education classical
Was somewhat lackadassical.
On Socrates and Cicero
I’m rather hit-or-missero.
Too scant by half for modesty’s
My knowledge of The Oddystey,
And were I spurred to learn, the urge’ll
Pass before we’ve got to Virgil:
Far as I know, Romulus
And Remus grew up mommuless,
Although I think they had a dog?
Or it had them? It’s all a fog.
Veni? Absolutely. Vidi?
Mostly. Vici? Don’t be greedy.
There’s no ring I’d throw my hat in
That demands I translate Latin.
I don’t know, for Pete’s sake, what is
Going on when asked, Quo vadis?
Should I then be crucified?
Jesus wept. My teachers sighed.

It Didn’t Seem Polite To Count

I think I’ve seen a lot of birds
But had no apps for clickin’
To add them to my List of Life.
E.g., I’ve seen a chicken,
Several ducks, a cormorant,
An angry swan, an elephant,
And seagulls…oh, so very many
Seagulls…though I haven’t any
Fish to give them, still, they’re screaming,
Shrieking, squawking…
Waking, dreaming,
Seagulls haunt me
Like betrayal
Curdles every chance at love
Or happiness…

Push comes to shove,
I’ve seen some tits
And finches. Plenty!
Merlin’s app says I’ve seen twenty.