Metaphysical Fragment
What do I know
of the vast Empyrean,
since I talk
like a Stoic,
and live
like an Epicurean?
The Stupidest Mensan
I am old.
I get my syntax garbled
and repeat myself,
as the old do at time.
But, I think I recollect,
I was always like that.
I am the stupidest
member of Mensa.
Foam Cups
My wife is fond
of saving foam cups
& putting them
in the cupboard
as if they were
little children
lined up on parade.
"Sweetheart," I say,
"You know these things
are quite disposable."
"But I'm not,"
she remarks
and goes her way.
This man's biodegradable refuse
is this woman's treasure
in this strange world
of disposable.
Parchment
"It is better to remain dry"
--Heraclitus
If the saints
were not dried out
and dessicated
with parched tongues
(and yet they speak
in tongues)
and dry souls,
I would be more likely to listen
to them.
That would not,
if they became like
the palpable fruit,
make their message
more truth,
but it would help them
to advertise, forsooth.
For My Daughter
You were conceived
when the cherry blossom
bloomed
in Branch Brook Park
in the Forest Hill.
An angel brought you
down from on high
and placed you snugly
in our clasped hands.
In your own hand
you held
a golden apple...
Why do we have to get up
in the middle
of the night
to change your diaper
because you holler
so?
Wake Up Call
The computer makes my coffee.
The taste of coffee
wakes the dawn,
and I awaken also.
Since it is morning,
shouldn't we pause
for morning song?
Not anymore, in this apartment.
Too loud!
It'll wake the still-sleeping
young next-door-neighbor
who is hard to love
as I love myself
if only because - plain fact -
I don't know him as well.
The birds aren't afraid to chirp
an uproar, but I'm silent
and remain pensive.
He drives a big red Pontiac
and stubs out Marlboros
on the sidewalk.
I'm glad he doesn't know
my own idiosyncrasies.
Most of what we imagine
about each other are mere fantasies.
Everybody's Jihad
Succulent roast pig
is what I dig
when the Knights of Columbus
get together.
I'll gladly go to war
to protect my sacred boar,
which you are so mean
as to even deem unclean.
Differences like that
mean a lot, and so
there must be war
between our cultures.
(Aren't we both the vultures?)