Tiddlywinks and rabbits
Hares and hinkey habits
Everybody
     Elicits élan
          When ev'rything's comin' 'round

Invisible personal savior
Pondering human behavior...
Maybe increase
     Willpower in these
          Organic inventions
               You've made from the ground?

A bee here
another there
the bee catchers busily chase

enjoy every bit
hit and miss
miss and hit

the urge to live is the sugar
sweetens the grind
keeps death out of mind.

If you keep death in mind
high is the cost
in the momentary dying
life is lost.

In Rochester, on East Avenue,
A greyish soul treks off to work,
Throws back the coffee handily,
Sleepily pays the sales clerk-

His gaze is now transfixed by a tree
Colorful and flowering
Wishes he could stay outside
Alas, the tasks are towering…

He checks and sets the openness
Of his eyes in his image in the glass,
So as not
     to make it seem
          he’s as gone
               as he is;
Stumbles past the guard, plops down on his ***,

Planted thus, in front of his monitor,
In a cubicle, first floor, across from the lab,
Curses his fate for landing him here,
In this windowless slogging, dark and drab.

And when the end of days arrives
And we are queued and cattling
Oh we can praise the Lord for death
For then ends all the prattling

The soreness stiffly settles in
So sit and stew and ponder thus
If there were anything to sin
Why would we wait here for this bus?

The scale is so at odds with us
Morphing, shrinking, chasm-crack,
The only way is on the bus
The driver, bless him, takes us back

My thesis is almost complete
I stayed up late to edit it
So would you read it in your seat?
It may be crap but could it fit?

Within the mediocrity
The realm in which we write
So early in the hour of tea
Or later in the nerves of night?

Someone slams your precious art
Remain Open
Callously pokes and prods your heart
Remain Open
The world wants you to close the door
Remain Open
Wants you curled up on the floor
*Remain Open

The old dog shudders for a moment
Then completes his drawn out breath
Then the shudder returns again
Soon he will meet his death

It grieves me so that I cannot fix you
So much tragedy has clung to us of late
But you won't imbibe hardly a bite
And it doesn't bode well for your fate

I know that time will take us all
But I'm not ready to let you go
Here want a steak? Want this ball?
Why do you lie there breathing slow?

Get up old man and gnaw this bone
You can have whatever you desire
One more walk and one more bath
One more lie-down by the fire

You were so loyal lonesome friend
So soft and kind and warm and true
And I do not like to face the end
Especially this, the end of you