Poem 4:Little America

I knew so much when I was five,

I had 10 pennies

And I knew how to dive.

 

When I was fifteen

I grew my own mind

Though a combination of my peers

I thought my own seed-thoughts I aligned

 

Had that cup been filled before

When the water o’er the edge did flow

Or had I just been a reckless envoy

Making the swells and crests grow

 

We knew so much in 76

With our Common Sense, Articles, Declaration

Coming from English stock

We had small trouble with equal representation

 

We had the money

To go into debt

And we had the great fathers

And our diving cadets

 

Onward and up with power and fame

The peacemaker with atoms

The force behind NATO

The butt of EU jokes now our name

 

Had that cup been filled before

When water o’er the edge did flow

Or had we just been reckless

Making the swells and crests grow

And grow

And grow

And spill out.

Poem 3: Retrospect and Wrinkles

These eyes do not see

As they saw in their youth.

Now spending their time

Finding falsified truths.

 

Those young ears are gone

With that patience, unmet

Replaced now with holes

Filled with sawdust and sweat

 

These lips have no strength

And to this mind’s crooked hand cede

Leading those cynical proverbs

To cause this tongue to bleed

 

Those hands that were once

Content with a fond, loving touch

Recoil to rough, slipp’ry work

That’s been relied on too much.

 

It’s false appeasement,

Only digression has been achieved.

And it’s self-induced

But it’s comfortable, being deceived.

 

So the good won’t return

Since ill stance can ne’er restore

The better, now lost

Though in abundance before.

Poem 2: The Game

Daddy! Daddy! You must come quick!

She is doing this all wrong.

She put his hand with her hand

right there, where yours belongs.

 

That is no match,

as you well know.

All the card-games you played

helped you learn that’s so.

 

Yours and hers, a pair,

The King and Queen of hearts.

Red for love and hearts for love-

Or is love only when it starts?

 

Do something, please! He’s a Jack of spades,

he doesn’t fit at all.

And little me,

the number three,

can’t do much ‘cause I’m too small.

 

Daddy! Daddy! Pick me up

and set me on your knee,

for I have never ever seen you

lose a game of rummy.

Poem: How it Comes

I hear an army charging

Racing on their horses that tick

Sweeping nations, minds, bodies

Turning every stone

Killing every king

Leaving a brand new scent on the grass

Changing the way the colors feel

Spinning the world in the opposite direction

Having no regard for the past

 

My eyes eat

My ears see

My mouth understands

My hands believe

 

I’m approaching, unafraid, to solve the riddle.

Was I ever to learn

Without the push of change?