Category: Uncategorized

Truth Or Lie

Must God stay beyond

understanding

His prophecy to conscript

and confuse

 

Are the Trinity and

Resurrection

Both miracles or only

a ruse

 

Building temples to

edification

Storing Icons that judge

and decry

 

Is the Bible fictitious

or sacred

Is Redemption the truth

— or a lie

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

Not A Child In Sight

A stitch past nine on borrowed time

memories rushing back

The Wolf is feasting in Grandma’s bed

Red Riding Hood a snack

 

A Cow gets ready to jump again

but the moon drops from the sky

Humpty Dumpty on the floor

Tweedle-dum starts to cry

 

A candle burns for Jack’s last jump

his waiting funeral pyre

The Stepmother screams, Cinderella hides

her daughter’s dress on fire

 

Little Jack Horner abandons his corner

curds harden and whey runs aground

With Mother Goose fleeing — the Grimm Brothers die

not a child in sight to be found

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)

‘Something For Gregg’

I was somewhere deep in Kansas

on a Triumph 69’

When your song came on the jukebox

and hit me from behind

I was headed for a bad place

and cared for nothing much

When I heard the song ‘Melissa,’

my heart and soul were struck

Entranced, your lyrics captured me

like nothing had before

When you sang about ‘The Gypsy’

I headed for the door

But something made me turn around

and grab another dime

Ten more times in that diner’s booth

still lost within your rhyme

Now back inside the bus station

and sleeping on the bench

I scratch your words into the wood

last dollar gone and spent

My bike outside against the wall

the kickstand was long gone

And out of gas, my hopes were dashed …

that unrelenting song

Waking up at ten unsettled

across the street I pushed

The sign said TRIUMPH-BSA

the owner Mister Cush

He asked, “What’s with your motor”

I said “Nothing — out of gas

“But worse I’m out of money

can I sell the bike for cash?

“Would you please just buy my Triumph

I know it’s old and worn

“But it got me here through seven states,

runs great both cold and warm”

“I’ll pay three hundred on the spot

on that can we agree?”

We walked back up inside his shop

three bills he handed me

I thought about a bus ride home

my thumb looked more in line

Facing East on old route 50

my heart in deep decline

The first big rig that came along

was bound for York Pa.

The driver said “If you like dogs

I’ll take you on your way”

In York I caught a fast ride out

two ‘dodgers’ going North

And got back home with hat in hand

your song to guide me forth

Two years then passed, I met my wife

four more and our first child

We named her ‘Sweet Melissa’

her dad back from the wilds

Now forty years have come and gone

my beard and hair both gray

I owe you Gregg, and always will

your song, her name — that day

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: March, 2017)

 

For Gregg Allman

I sent this to Gregg in May, 2017.  It’s on his website.

We spent two days together in Richmond Virginia in

a blizzard in 1982.