You don’t need fancy toys or food
To entertain your friends or brood,
Just lots of real attention paid
To reinforce connections made.

For love is felt when it goes deep
And every kinship that you keep
Will thrive when nurtured like a plant;
Indifference, though, will disenchant.

Forget the showy gifts and treats.
Affection paired with time completes
Attachments goods cannot replace;
The truth in this we should embrace.

Right before a suicide
Might something have been said
To keep that person on this side
Of life, instead of dead?

We hear about the famous ones
Who seemed to have it made,
Yet even they succumbed despite
The talents they displayed.

Inside each person’s head there is
A privileged domain
Which holds a private treasury
Of suffering and pain.

I guess that when it overflows
Its owner cannot cope
And suicide is what takes place
When anguish crushes hope.

I wish that I could just erase
The lines and wrinkles on my face
And also all that sagging skin
That proves which decade I am in.

When women crow, so smug with pride,
About their age, which they won’t hide,
I think, “Yeah, right! I’m really sold
On how much you like looking old!”

I won’t get face-lift surgery
And it would not be perjury
To say that Botox ain’t my thing,
Despite the smoothness it would bring.

So I will bear my aging mien,
Accepting that the senior scene
Is where, at my age, I must be,
But I’d prefer it mirror-free!

Berlin's a place that contradicts -
It's vibrant, but it's haunting,
The paradigm of hipness, with
A history most daunting.

The damage done in World War II
Reduced it to a rubble
And then the famous wall went up,
Which led to years of trouble.

You can't forget (and never should)
The **** reign of terror.
Memorials abound atoning
For that awful era.

Yet everything has been restored.
You won't see ancient buildings,
But modern takes of what was lost,
Replete with domes and gildings.

This is a city worth a trip,
With coolness overriding,
Defiant that to all the world
Its past will not be hiding.

Where we live and what we do
Are choices made without a clue
If we will thrive at home or work;
We cannot know what problems lurk.

Decisions made when we are young,
Some based on plans to which we’ve clung,
May work out just the way we’d hoped
Despite some pitfalls never scoped.

Yet other picks may not pan out
And leave us filled with dread or doubt.
Of those selections, most will curse them;
It takes courage to reverse them.

Age makes hindsight crystal clear
So regrets may thus appear,
But since magic we do lack,
There simply is no going back.

Watch the rock and rollers
With their bellies and their wigs,
Playing songs performed at
Oh-so-many early gigs.

The keyboards and guitars still sound
Real good, though maybe slower
Yet their voices simply cannot reach
The high range or the lower.

Blown-up photos from the past,
Not meaning to, are mocking
Their current selves who do their best
To do their roll and rocking.

The audience, all old as well,
Belt out, with zeal and passion,
The lyrics they remember
From when tie-dye was in fashion.

The music bubbles in my blood;
I watch and I’m transported,
But find it sad attempts to bring
The past to life are thwarted.

*Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

The thing about a scarf is that
I know just how to buy one
But I don’t do it often ‘cause
I’m clueless how to tie one.

My friends look chic and classy
With a scarf around their throats.
For hiding saggy skin like mine
That style gets all my votes.

A neck stays warm when breezes blow
If it is scarf-protected
And sometimes boring outfits,
With a scarf, can be corrected.

Yet somehow I have never learned
The skills that are required
To knot a scarf so that my neck’s
A place to be admired.

We’re either born with savoir-faire
And everyone can spot
That stylishness so cool and hip
Or else, like me, we’re not.