Lady Requests

26 March 2013

The lady said: “I want …you write

A poem just for me, about myself …”

And in a closing chord she stipulated:

“It must be funny!”

The lady left. The poet sat confused.

Had any lady throughout history

Put such demands with such precision

And contradiction?

Had any lady …? Would the Queen of Egypt

Have begged Marc Anthony to write

A poem about love with funny quirks …

I have my doubts.

Consider Dante Alighieri

And Beatrice, famously extolled,

Walking the bridge across the Arno…

No fun, not even her address.

And yet the lady said: “You write …!”

And unlike Beatrice, unlike

Cleopatra, stood before me

Her figure and her voice enveloping

Her charm and beauty… I declare,

Who needs the girl from Florence?

Or from Alexandria?

Wheeler

20 March 2013

The lady said: “It is your final,

Your final bastion of independence!”

And then she tossed another load

Into the dirty washing trolley.

Tbe lady was referring to

My absolute, ridiculous

Refusal to avail myself

Of my pristine new wheeler.

I’m stubborn and I hang my head

In shame, and would agree:

I am a naughty little boy,

But wait – what fun to feel so young!

THE ROAD

22 May 2008

I sat beside the asphalt road                            

Just resting for an instant,

And chanced to hear a sombre note

Come trailing weird and distant.

It was a sound, just barely heard.

I looked around: This is absurd!

What makes a noise like this one?

Grateful

9 March 2013

I should be grateful that it’s just my legs

And not my brain that will no longer hurry.

My legs have carried me to sundry spots

On all five continents and nearby oceans,

But would not now – they tremble at the thought!

My brain instead will rise in flights of fancy

Or burrow underground to seek some meaning

And answer questions: How and Where and Why?

And will not cease to query till my legs

Won’t move at all.