Mom Would Be Proud

I’ve covered the map of this cruel world;

Forests of sin, the rivers of booze…

And I credit my survival,

To an ounce of caution and sensible shoes.

More than once I gambled with risk;

Missed a bullet by only a hair…

I sped on freeways with confidence,

Always wearing clean underwear.

Interviews, changes and bank loans,

I met with minimum fears…

It was easy to make commitments,

Knowing I’d washed behind my ears.

Positive Change

I think the dad was mafia,

They lived way beyond their means…

Providing venues of positive change:

Jukeboxes, cigarette machines.

We partied like we knew Gatsby,

Smoking menthol's around the pool…

Posing like we had money,

And I, the adopted fool!

Their Wurlitzer had a button,

In the back, to use no dimes…

The Hit Parade was free to us

We danced to the best of times.

The mother was always shopping,
New furniture to rearrange...
Each Fall, another  Cadillac,
Her life, "Going through the change". 

 A San Joaquin cherry farmer,
Pillar of the community...
The citizens who admired him,
Never saw one Cherry Tree.

It wasn’t till I hit sixty,

Old age extinguished the fire.

I remembered they always pushed D-12;

The Castaways, singing "Liar Liar". 

The Play

The universe is a theater;

This planet, merely the stage.

We rehearse lines for a lifetime;

Every day, a new role played.

A birth becomes the first act,

Each death becomes the last.

A new generation, a revival,

Same play, with a whole new cast.

Flame Walker

I’ve watched her for ten years now,

Melt the asphalt on the street,

Sashaying to the grocery,

Like a feral cat in heat.

Today I felt self-actualized,

Observing the men she flipped…

She acknowledged the grateful oglers,

Unaware of the curb, she TRIPPED!

Dandelion Greens

I finally restored my mailbox.

What to do with the left over paint?

I decided to change a dandelion,

Into a blossom it ain’t.

I learned one can’t improve nature,

The can of green paint did not work;

As a human I stood defeated,

Forced to give up another strange quirk.