Month: October 2022

Or Maybe I’m Just Lazy

Eyeless orange orbs alight
Unlit upon my porch tonight,
Scowling down with pride of place,
Albeit all without a face
Between them (which on humans would
Be creepier). I know I should
Have hollowed them for Hallow’s Eve
But granted this year’s gourds reprieve
Because no carving schemes I had
Could frighten like a campaign ad,
And face it: Faceless Orange Fear
Is apropos again this year.
Democracy’s prospects are murky.
If it lives, I’ll carve a turkey
For November’s ornament
Where scary faces would’ve went;
If it doesn’t, they’ll suffice
For fleeing in. (Note: Find some mice.)

Carrying The Fireflies

I reached for the moon, having been told
That should I miss, I’d land amongst the stars,
Which sounded good when I was six years old
And stars looked like those bugs we’d trap in jars,
But, disappointingly, neither occurred,
And having missed both moon and starryflies
My hopes dropped with my arms until I heard
The next year that I’d made it?! My surprise
And joy were dampened somewhat when I learned
That Michael Collins was the astronaut
Who’d dropped off Neil and Buzz, and then returned
To pick them up (no rocket parking lot)
Like trick-or-treaters raiding rich folks’ blocks.
Like Charlie Brown, though, all they got were rocks.

Diogenes

I could look it up
Or ask Sunday school alums
Who’d paid attention

Instead I wonder
Why that old man thought his lamp
Shone on honesty

Even if it did
Wouldn’t it just work at night
Or in a dark room?

Pardon me, good sir,
Thou look’st like an honest man
Join me in this shed…

Poor sad mad old soul
Tell him what he wants to hear
So he’ll go away