SEPTEMBER’S WAIL

My summer love,

Like warm sand and soft skin

Turned brown by a burning sun,

Gave a last kiss for all that’s been,

A parting act for a love she’s undone.

September’s call,

A wounded man’s wail,

Autumn’s chill has just begun,

Reluctantly, I set my mainsail

Untying my knots one by one.    

Shorter days

Give more time for sleep,

Time for love stories to be respun.

Alone, in my room, I sometimes weep,

Mine's a sonnet about a hit-and-run. 

more poetry at:

SEA GLASS PEOPLE

PARAMECIUM DON’T DO IT

                                   Paramecium do not write poetry,

Rhesus monkeys recite no clever rhymes,

Neither knows much about alliteration,

At least they don’t cheat or commit crimes.

They may not care about poetic license,

Nor ability to compose loving verse,

They only do what nature has written,

They don’t debate if it’s a blessing or curse.

We preach the glories of the Ten Commandments.

Still, we grope and gossip at an awful cost,

We bare false witness and covet our neighbors,

But at least we delight in Shakespeare and Frost.

If it’s true we’ve doomed ourselves to perdition,

Four stanzas can give only so much grace,

But I believe with all my primordial passion,

Poetry, can help save the human race.

LOST PIRATE GOLD

            I wanted to be a pirate

Since the 4^th grade production of Peter Pan.

All my closest friends played lost boys, but

I was a pirate, one of a lawless, loathsome crew. 

The 6^th grade boy who played Captain Hook

Was the coolest kid in the entire school.

He danced around swinging his hook.

Why couldn’t I be him?

I came home and told my parents I wanted to be a pirate.

They agreed on the condition I didn’t run away from home.

I said okay and my mother redid my room with pirate wallpaper.

When my parents made me take dance lessons,

I went as long as I also learned how to do a sailor’s jig.

In high school when my friends and I used fake ID’s

To go to bars two towns over, they’d order beers.

I only drank rum.

In college, fraternity boys were too tame.

I spent my time in bars down by the docks

Listening to sailors tell yarns of exotic places.

I graduated with honors as my parent wished

And gave them my framed diploma.

My mother told me, “Do some good with your life.”

My father made me a deal, go to law school,

Pass the bar and he’d buy me any car I wanted.

            I went, I passed and I bought a bright yellow mustang

With a black stripe down its length. I called it “Polly.”

I joined a crew of lawyers that specialized in bankruptcy.

It was a natural fit for me.  We could take a company down,

Cut its contractual obligations to shreds

And turn a substantial profit.  We were so good

I made more money than any thirty year old

Knew what to do with.

I had a gorgeous, golden-haired girlfriend. 

We cruised to distant islands and drank daiquiris

In dark bars.  She loved the jewels I gave her.

That relationship didn’t last, but each Christmas

I went home, showered my parents with gifts,

Treasures from around the world. 

I think they liked them.

They didn’t say much.

I’d spend a lot of my visit in my old room

Staring at the wallpaper, picking out

My favorite pirates like I use to,

Recalling the 4^th grade play,

Being a pirate. Now

            I wonder, when

Did I become

A lost boy?

VISITING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TRIBUTE

Standing silently

In the viewing gallery

Staring at a wall filled with

Family pictures of faces lost,

Each different, but the same

Sharing a common fate,

A man standing near me

Saw my wet cheek,

“Did you lose someone up there?”

I knew none of them,

I knew no one who had lost any of them,

I was equally unrelated to all of them.

Did I lose someone up there?

I lost them all.

I had no reply,

I stood in silence.

HOW I MET MY WIFE LABOR DAY WEEKEND

As an 18 year old lifeguard 
On top of the world,

I sat alone waiting to save others,

But she shyly approached, smiled

And saved me.  It was 1988.

Her smooth, tanned skin

Played hide-and-seek

With her pale bikini.

From my perch I stared far too long at her.

She asked me if I like the Beatles.

Trying to be cool I asked her why.

She replied, “I could never marry anyone

Who didn’t like the Beatles.”

I jumped off my lifeguard’s chair,

Looked into her innocent eyes and

Told her, “Ringo’s my favorite.”