Yellow Tea Rose

Black and White

You cannot depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus~ Mark Twain

Black and White

White is the shade

you pull down

on your eyes

when I get boring

as you shut your mind to the monotony and the drone

of my noise.

AND Black is

a buzzing fly

that has landed on your nose right after

he shat

on top of a giant pile of

dog shit.

Brown

is the smear

of that sticky fly

with robo eyes

that’s got your number

and won’t die.

The dark brown stain

that’s infected your brain

that you can’t train

or refrain

from keeping in the

dark.

A hot spark

that

lights the bench in the park

that the man in the long black Rolls

once sat on

that you ignored

floating high on your kite

of white

with black and brown lines

that you drew and wouldn’t cross over,

the same man

who could’ve taken you outta all this black and white and shitty brown.

Remember him

reading the paper on a bench in the park

Offering you

some grey poupon

for your shitty

blackened brown dog

pillowed in white?

Apollo - Watching the House

Bread Pudding

Pudding

made from soft bread

chewy raisin background

dark caramel sauce dribbles down

my chin.

Wrapping up the Year with a Corny Poem

I need a treetop ornament

an angel

a star

something decorative

to wrap the bald top of the tree

and tacky, plastic or fake won't do.

I need a special combination

a mixer

to swirl my feelings

so they don’t disperse unnoticed.

This Christmas

I am wrapping up my wishes

sizing up my resolutions

placing a tall order for

continued health,

and a truckload of happiness

mixed with a heaping man shovel of joy

because it isn’t about shopping at the mall

exchanging cards or how original your gift is

It is about the time

we cement

crafting our relationships

eating, talking, crying and giggling

because the best gifts

we give and receive  freely

without any wasted gravel or sand.

And the water is slowly added

to make sure good it is of good consistency

and then it is

packed down and smoothed

packed down and smoothed

packed down and smoothed

because it takes a lifetime to

to get  to the stage where

they will love you

no matter what you do.

so keep the cement turning

and don't let it dry out.

It's worth it!

And one day you will be able to look back

and admire the foundation. The foundation

of a life built through effort and self-discipline

from blood, sweat, and tears

and years of mixing, packing,

and smoothing over,

carefully erasing the cracks

erasing the faults

erasing the pain

of stiff joints

aching backs

and loss,

forging

strong unions

built on the promises

of honest caring,

sacrifice

and love.

Santa's Sandwich

Santa's sandwich

got eaten
by Sally, a very large mouse
with glasses
who absolutely loves
Salami and Swiss.
Her favorite is liverwurst
with tomato and onion
but mice have to eat what they can get
so today it is Salami and Swiss
on a toasted bagel with mayo
and sliced in half for her little mouse
size mouth which never shuts up anymore
according to her spouse
and like it’s TRUE—
Sally could go on and on and on
but she won’t
`cause she needs to finish her sandwich
and Miss Manners says it’s not polite to talk with a full mouthed mouse –which has Santa’s sandwich half eaten in her mouth. And Morris, the house cat is sleeping right now and she doesn’t want to wake him up `because he is such a grouch when someone wakes him …especially when he’s in the middle of a really good mouse dream. So Sally is chewing really QUIETly - shh!!
(WHISPERING NOW)
Miss Manners also says to finish the WHOLE sandwich or Sally is going to wind up on Santa’s naughty list… because it is not good to be wasteful, since people are hungry and would be ever so thankful for even one tiny morsel of that sandwich, so Sally better finish it all… and to chew it one hundred times or she is going to get one elephant sized stomach ache for eating Santa’s sandwich too fast…AND SALLY wants to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS because mice don’t have to worry about being politically correct or any other human hang-ups—

BURP- WHEW! 

Sally is so full of salami that she needs to go take a nap now—but first she’s going to leave a note for the big guy –

DEAR sANTa,
I got Tired of Waiting and I’m real Sorry, but I ATE your Sandwich— I hope you don’t hold that against me. Because I was really looking forward to getting a fresh block of CHEESE for the winter and not for nothing, but you would be a lot healthier if you dropped a few lbs. OH - And I almost forgot, DON’T WAKE MORRIS!!
Signed,
Morris’s prey-mate,
Sally

Coffee

Coffee
strong racy hot
warms my chilled fingertips
sharpens my mind, energizing
domain.