. Smile “Nothing you wear is more important than your smile.” ---Connie Stevens I didn’t weigh your sway and worth__Until you left my...

. Talk Around the Urn In our Sunday best, on folding chairs, We solemnly talk around the urn; A tear, a sniffle, show who cares For the loved one who...

. Melancholy Hues (of Autumn) ---an ode The third of four trimesters of the yearsees summer flag. The mercury recedesand chilly grey replaces skies...

. Truth Streaked Across the Sky Truth streaked across the skyAlighting on a foreign strand,Where politicians buried itBeneath the lying sand. The...

. Just Doin' Our Job As if they didn’t have enough to do already---harvesting the light to make food for the tree and seeing to it you and I have...

. Diners For single men alone, what impulse spurs us To find them everywhere? –the burned-out lights, the squat brick block, so many times...

. Raking Leaves The blaze of autumn's orange-gold is gone, And now it's time to rake the fallen leaves, __To clear the cluttered eaves, __And face a...

. First Pick Flamingo They used to call this player the flamingo; They chaffed and mocked; they were full of bravado. ‘Cause he’s the new kid,...

. Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of Baäl "—What did that madman want?" ---2 Kings 9:11 He saw Jehu Destroys the Temple and Statue of...

. The Garden Dense boughs and variegated blooms __That once festooned a garden Are dying as November births __Pellucid forms that harden On them, my...

. A Recruiter Tells It as It Isn’t Your World War One recruitment agent prays he finds you well. Your King and Country says we need you for a...

. Homeostasis "When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change."  —Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland In general, everybody wishes...

. For the Sake of Ten Thousand: A Supplication from New Sodom And Abraham came near and said, ‘Would You also destroy the righteous with the...

. "Sometimey” People Sometimes he’s quite responsive, Sometimes he disappears. Sometimes he’s downright friendly, Sometimes he switches...

. Simplicity “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” ---Sir Isaac Newton I smell you in...

. HellWard Canto 1: Hospital ---lines 1-92 It had to be---that long descent began: About me images, one century That started, stuttered, showed how...

. Voting Advice When we vote in each election,few with brains will ever run.So, when we make our selection,we elect a simpleton. When a massive...

. Polarities The only certain solidarity among the Self-Reliant is the ease with which their pride in insularity is spoken of like some esteemed...

.   The Death of the Old Met 1883-1967 Unsinging silence fills the empty spaceWhere once the divas aria-ed and trilledPuccini’s La Bohème before...

. Fall Back: Central Standard Time Already it is dark: the falling arc Of each advancing year, when the eager moon, To catch the setting sun, comes...