She cries for help
Grasping, clutching
Drowning in anxiety,
Dragging others down.

She demands friendship.
She commands respect.
Scream,
Cry,
Plead,
Repeat.

Sedate me now.
Sinking into numbness.
Canker,
Ulcer,
Tumor,
Death.

Downward a brink strewn with craggy rubble,
I, confounded by impervious haze,
Despair the convoluted path and stumble.
Slick, sable stones reduce me to my knees.
The glorious Pilgrimage beckons me:
“Rise and seek out yonder city of gold,
descend ye from thy safe promontory
And subject thyself to dangers untold.”
On bended knee, head bowed, I pray and plead
For provision and eased yoke -and trudged on.
Abandon all hope, and many concede,
At the wicket gate, where I near anon.
    Tenant of celestial city now.
    With robust garden, I reflect my plow

Just the other day
I noticed little things
Were going missing:
Thimble,
Spectacles,
Needle,
Fifty cent piece.

I found it particularly queer
How these objects disappeared.
I don't think I misplaced them
Perhaps my mind erased them.

[Later that week]

Today is my birthday.
Tilly, my granddaughter,
Presents me with a
Needlepoint magpie.

My heart finds incandescent joy.

There once was a hoary miser,
Who believed himself the wiser.
He hoarded his money
And divorced his honey,
Sly Liza, buries rich fertilizer.

Sinuous the smoke
Tainting serene summer sights
Flaming, scourging plight.