On The Lighter Side
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Sleepytime Tea


Flowers, grasses, petals and leaves
are good nepenthe for one who grieves.
Orange, black, yellow, rose:
these are the colors to conquer woes
( I suppose ).
Chamomile cured Peter Rabbit
of his bad McGregor habit.
Flowers of passion, tilia, too,
are an antidote for rue.
And lest the mixture seem too raw,
add cap of skull and thorne of haw.
Boil water.
Let it steep.
Drink slow.
Drink deep.
Let go.
Benefits reap.
Lie down.
Go to sleep.


Mire and War


Some say you learn the most in the mire,
some say in bed.
From what I know of marital romps,
I don't hold with those who favor swamps.
Life has much to teach
on dung
and gore.
More dire than bed or mire is war.
Much more.


( with apologies to Robert Frost )


Monochrome


Once the screen was really silver.
Once the world was shades of gray.
You could almost touch the romance...
Fred and Ginger danced the night away.
Let the shutter frame your vision,
Let the sprockets pull you down.
Eighteen frames, the speed of silence;
Twenty-four, the speed of sound.
Bogie in a trenchcoat, standing alone
In monochrome.
The Princess and The Peasant


The Princess

I'm supposed to be a Princess
as ethereal as mist
with brows that stay unfurrowed
and lips that stay unkissed,
till a Prince all icky-charming
with his pumpkin coach-and-four
sweeps me off my spike-heeled slippers --
what a bore!



The Peasant

I suppose you've heard the story
of the poor-but-honest lad
who's enamored of a maiden
with a big-shot for her dad.
In the tales he finds a fortune,
or was royal all along,
and they say, "All's well that ends well" --
well, they're wrong!!