Jimmy’s Choir

Jimmy sang
In a fourth grade choir
With acrobats and thieves
And great tall liars:

There was lanky George
With his thick black glasses
Spouting about gravity
Between science classes

Pretty pink Patty
Who was lazy as molasses
Yet somehow during PE
She’d run quickest and fastest!

Sporty Jo Baker
Who tied a two-buns do
And pirouetted in leotards
“Oh, yuck to tutus!”

Fast-mouthed McGee
Who hustled at marbles
A mama’s boy who every morning
Never failed to gargle

Playacting Sally
Who knew Shakespeare by heart
And would regale you
With every dying part

Doe-eyed Pete
Who walked like in a dream
And fibbed such scary stories
“Oh, what a scream!”

Princess Penelope
Who mascaraed her eyes
And bragged of her swimming pool
Twice Olympic-sized

There was best friend Carlos
Who wanted a motorbike
And gelled his green hair
Into Sonic the Hedgehog spikes

And Jimmy was Jimbo
A daring little man
Who sang the loudest off-key
And stole music stands
To see the teacher frown
And huddle friends all together
He’d purposely lose song sheets
Because playtime was better!

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Valentine Heart

People say they give their hearts away
At the first date or kiss
During the nuptial vows
But I give my heart to you
Day by day
Moment by moment
Because love does not stop giving
It does stop growing or living
Just as we do —
I love you

Athena

O’er the hill he rides his steed
To memory’s eternity
Years past the deed
The children still whisper of his face
The lance, the chariot, the fearsome mace
The mysterious knight
Against the fading light
The dragons slayed
And the grateful maids
Send shivers of pleasure when again told
Those bygone chivalric tales of old
Yet sunset spells a specious cast
It was her, not his name, that should last.

Mr. Hyde

Restless sits my soul
While hours wile away
Awaiting the familiar ghoul
That taunts me by the day
He wears my face and pries
The black recesses of my heart
Despite my fearful cries
He laughs, “It’s just the start.”

Stone Sentry

In the tingling cold
The lion’s mane
Grows large and bold
Coated by a gentle snow
His stone façade
Becomes a show
Of tranquil night
And calming deep
A vigilant guard, at last
Asleep

Gnome Trouble

Once I saw a gnome in the garden
When summer was high and I was a-yardin’
With lovely ears and an impish smile
Eyes full of tricks and rosy-faced guile
He hustled me out of a foot of grass by the fountain
By claiming he’d raze the mole hill mountain
But when the leaves fell, still it still stood
And I realized, he’d hoodwinked me good
But by then the Missus had moved in with the babes
Now I avoid that patch with the lawnmower’s blades
And wonder if a treehouse would suit better
My conniving, parental little go-getter

Memory

A quick word or a moment’s hesitation
On that rare sought visitation
Of past deeds and minor wrongs enacted
Through Time’s mirror so refracted
The gruesome monster and saint, both faces
Dwelling again in recalled joys and distastes
Yoked by the burden of a conscious being
Who sees beyond the mere seeing