person

May 17, 2023

PIGGIES

I have to stop and wonder if
there is a parent alive who
hasn’t gently pulled on the toes
of achild too young to object
and recited “this little piggy.”
And of course most children giggle
but not for the reason the parents
suspect or hope, but at the sight
of a large person turning into
a somewhat ridiculous child.
If they could comprehend just
what was said in that always
slightly squeaky voice parents
adopted for the verse, they would
point out that they got strained peas
and peaches and such, and that
no good pig, or toe for that matter,
ever ate roast beef, for they
prefer a much sloppier meal.

May 9, 2023

LOOKING GLASS

There are several problems with
Alice and her adventures, and
while how she found a rabbit hole
large enough to go down
it is certainly one of them,
but the larger question,
the unstated question, is how
a second person made the trip
and where that person was from.
It seems that he/she was present
before the rabbit appeared
for he/she knew precisely what our Alice
was doing while sitting on the riverbank.
So we can assume he/she came
from our world, but then we
must ask was he/she a stalker
for he/she never spoke to Alice
as far as we know, or a friend,
or just possibly Alice dropped
a tab of acid while sitting
on the riverbank, for that
would explain the whole story.

April 30, 2023

EULOGY

In a perfect world it would be
a requirement that every person
upon reaching the age of 40
would be compelled to write
a draft of a eulogy in the voice
of each lover or partner whose
relationship he or she chose to end,
one that the spurned lover
would deliver at his or her funeral.
The task would come
with the caveat that one or more
such exes would be asked
to deliver a eulogy,
and it would be their choice
to write their own or read the one
the departed had prepared for them.
It wouldn’t take all that long
to realize how interesting
these funerals will likely be.

April 25, 2023

STILL

Someone once told me that pain
is a good way of knowing
that you are still alive.
I did want to kill that person,
but thought better of it,
why not simply smile and
leave him in a life of pain.
More recently I was told
that I would get used to
my chronic pain and
over time it would seem
to hurt less if I just live with it,
accept that it is always there.
So now I have an always
angry roommate who speaks
only in single words, who
explains nothing when questioned
but appears when I least
want to see him, jabbing
and stabbing until I
want to scream “I’m alive,
so go to hell, you’re needed there.”

December 14, 2022

LIFE, ABBREVIATION

Arrival noted, 11:30 P.M.
delivery normal, baby
prepared for agency, mother
released in two days, baby
to foster care, then
to adoptive parents.

No memories, save one,
a fall, bathroom, head
bleeding, black and white
floor tile, radiator harder
than child’s skull.

Now 70, the same person,
a lying mirror each day,
a small cemetery, West
Virginia, a headstone
a mother finally,
a life of mourning.

December 13, 2022

SOONER OR LATER

He is cornered and knows it
so he responds as honestly
as he knows how without
turning away his questioner.

“You have a basic choice, “
he says, “most likely,
and that is do you want it
to look like this now,

or do you want it to look
like this in say thirty years.
If you want it looking like
this in thirty years, this

is what I would give you now,
and if all you care about
is now, it will possibly look
like this thirty years out.”

He’d been asked the question
before, given the same
answer and he knew
the odds were good that

he’d never see this person
again. That, sadly was the price
of integrity when you are
a highly skilled tattoo artist.

October 28, 2022

MIRROR MIRROR

The person I see each morning
looks vaguely familiar, perhaps
someone I once met in passing,
or maybe a distant relative.
But he was so much older
so he was difficult to place.

I do say hello each morning
but get only a nod, a gesture
in response, as if the person
is mute, for he smiles back
so it is not a silence born
of anger or displeasure.

I will of course keep trying
for I know that I will
one day recognize his all
too familiar face, and I
need to act now for he is
aging quickly so my time
is limited, and in any event
the mirror does need cleaning.

October 23, 2022

DESIGN?

I still have grave doubts
about designers in general, clothing
houses in more particular,
and above all furniture.

You have to ask if the person
who designed this chair
was somehow incapable of sitting,
or simply wanted something
that looked artistic, to hell
with the comfort of its occupant.

And some designers take this
to extremes, hoping perhaps
for some measure of eternal recognition.
Take for example the Adirondack chair,
found throughout the northeast
on porches and in yards,
in a myriad of colors,
that no one ever seems
to sit on, for good reason.

September 21, 2022

TIME WHEN

There waa a time when
news wasn’t news, carried
by mouth, one person
to another a game of telephone
before that concept existed.

Newspapers promised us
the news, but in the time
it took to write and print it,
it was nearly news,
or at worst slightly olds.

Now the world is always
available instantly, but we
know or should, that half
of the time we see only bits
woven into a narrative
that bears no relation
to what actually happened.

September 14, 2022

WRONG AGAIN

As a teenager, like so
many others of our narrow
minded, obsessed gender,
I imagined myself a great lothario,
girls on the edge of womanhood
lining up for my attention.

The absurdity of that dream
was lost on me and my peers,
testosterone drowning it in a sea
of hormones, and we were oblivious
to the real obstacle always
right in front of us, that we
imagined love and sex
in the first person only.

Now that youth and even
middle age are behind me
I still try to recall when I realized
that love requires the second person
singular, and my pleasure is
complete only when
my partner’s is as well.