Folk Songs

Our ethics discovered in folk songs,

We trusted they sang the truth;

Won battles blended from the past,

With fantastic new dreams of youth.

The lyrics of the protest songs,

Planted us firmly on solid ground…

We were bulldozers marching to freedom;

Elusive liberties, we've still not found.

Aging, defecting from the race,

It is time to pass the baton…

We drop it on to a vacant track;

Seems the values and dreamers are gone.

Sid and Sandi

Out of the blue, I missed you two,

Today on my usual drive.

Forty years, a thousand miles ago,

Only my memories now, still alive.

You welcomed me into the country,

Taught me all phases of tilling the land…

I learned to appreciate hardships,

The more simple the life, the more grand.

We readily exchanged our parents,

Horses, kids, ponds of fish and shared hay;

I gave up your adobe for waterfront,

Still I miss you the most each day.

A Promise Kept

Otis    RIP 1-3-2014

The day my name is entered

On the pages of St. Peter’s log,

You will see he wrote under “memo”,

“He came to look for his dog”.

The Talking Tree

The locust seemed to gather crows,

As if lured by an avian herder;

Welcoming others to form a flock,

It was a blatant, attempted murder.

Some screamed to be heard for miles,

While others clucked under their breath.

A few preened each wing feather,

Then cancelled the Battle of Death.

They called truce with trespassing eagles,

Ignored starlings in a neighboring tree…

Was it all bluff or just crow bravado

Before deciding to leave us be?

Maverick

My first dog was a Border Collie,

I was nine when he followed me home.

My best friend for almost a decade

Till I grew up, leaving Maverick alone.

The guilt I felt became karma,

I became a maverick in every home.

A few times cherished by others,

Always to find myself left alone.