Small surprises
Little disappointments
Tiny Malfunctions
Minuscule disasters
Rust along the edges
Multiple reasons why
The answer is a no.
                         LJM

Time
A crooked line
Connecting then and now
Never quite achieving the connection
That would build a bridge
To somewhere over there
And make a path
To what could be a better sometime.
           ljm

BLACKBERRIES

When the woods were green
And the air was clear
And the sky was mottled
With fluffy clouds,

When the river was high
And the water was clean
And fish hid in the shadow
Of submerged rocks,

When the cars were small
And the traffic slow
And wild blackberries
Grew by the roadside,

You were my love
And I was yours
And everything
Was shining bright

The scenes have changed
And so have we, but
love has never faltered
And every day still shines as bright
As when we picked blackberries.
         ljm

I think that I will take the time
To come up with a thrilling rhyme

If you could see me yesterday
You’d  know I’m not the same today

If I could win a golden prize
You’d see it shining in my eyes

The seaside is my spirit’s place
To step outside the rodent race.

I have a tale I want to tell
but rhyming will not do it well

te-dah te-dah te-dah te-dah
Pentameter’s unfailing law

Restricting laws I can’t abide
So I’ll set rhyming verse aside.
                               ljm

They did it
A bunch of shriveled up old men
With shrunken *****
And withered hearts
Have proved to America
That it’s more important

To populate the world
With unwanted, unloved
Uncared for children
Who will be a burden
To society and the
Criminal justice system,

That their law is more important
Than to give a second chance
To a teenaged girl who
succumbed to the urging
Of her boyfriend for
fear of losing him.

That their law is more important
Than to give a mother
Of four, who’s IUD failed
A chance to raise those four
Without the need of welfare
And free school lunches.

That their law is more important
Than to give some solace
To the girl knocked up by her father
Or the woman brutally *****
As she walked home from church.

This ruling marks you all as thugs
Pompous, righteous hypocrites
Who all suppose that you can
Force your will on women by a law
That violates each tenet of the right
Of women to pursue happiness.
ljm

Pompous men with secret aims
Gather in the shadows
Hoping to create some sort
Of Panacea for the masses.

One that won’t serve to curtail
Their journey on the gravy train
That stops in oh-so-many-places
To take on endless loads of moolah

All too often soaked in blood
From someone else’s children.
Trying hard to find a salve
For wounds that never heal.

Hoping to placate the mass
That thunders at the door
For just a hint of common sense
And a tiny touch of honor.

The recipe is hard to find
There’s always re-election
Pointing up the need
That overshadows all concerns.

So generate some platitudes
Write rules to be ignored.
Write laws that will not be enforced
Then pat each other on the back
And head back to the shadows.
              ljm

Lost - reality in multicolor shatters
Scattered by the breezes from the sunrise
Gaping holes with ragged edges
Filled with swirling mists of sadness

Perusing maps of certainty
The tick-tock of the day grows louder
But the tide washed out the roadway
And the darkness didn’t leave at dawn

There is no clay for making bricks
So nothing will get built today
And the penny found along the walk
Will only buy a feckless dream

A can of worms not good for fishing
Sits atop a dusty shelf above
A dog that wants more petting
Than you or I have hands to give

The echo of this joylessness is deafening
And there’s no reason to go on.
      ljm