Month: October 2023

Natural Disorder

Your furniture is smaller now than when
You first began to scan this blighted verse
And every time you read these lines again
Depend on entropy to make it worse–
By which I mean the chairs, et al., lose mass
And not that what you’re reading sheds its charm
(Although that, too, is probable, alas).
The shrinking’s slow and mostly does no harm
Until the day that you, distracted, sit
Too quickly, balancing a drink or dish;
The cushion’s not where you expected it
And suddenly it’s badly stained. I wish
I had some useful tips with which to close,
But this is just the universe you chose.

Signifying Nothing

If Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be
The oldest poet 2023
Is likely to have seen; his yesterdays
Alone would summon fools with such a blaze
Recorded time would have no need to speak.
Creatively, he might be past his peak,
However, so perhaps he’d feel relief
To know his candle’s flame, though bright, was brief.

Joy Buzzkill

If you haven’t kept up
This’ll shock you, no doubt,
But Mudville was joyless
When Casey struck out.
“Spoiler alert!”
I suppose I should say
If a hundred and forty-five years
Slipped away
And you’d planned to get ’round
To the box score tomorrow,
But the cat’s left the bag now.
Join Mudville in sorrow.