“Safety Glasses & Seat Belts, or Modern Values"

My Own Work Life

So I worked for a Pearl Harbor company

That had a figurehead minority leader &
The real disenchantment of the whole façade
Was his only apparent concern of all the vast
Employeedom---

Where are your safety glasses?

Where are your safety glasses?
Where are your safety glasses?

For the love of Peter, Paul, and Mary…

If our plant had blown up like U.S.S. Missouri,
The only question that would have been
Answered on the news & in the paper-whether
“He/she had their safety glasses on.”
______________________________________

My Own Driving Life

Run it down Haun straight

Over a hundred miles an hour
In a 6 banger pick-up.
Two wheels leaving the pavement,
Circling the A&W, funeral home burnouts.

Was the seat belt being worn?

Was the seat belt being worn?
Was the seat belt being worn?

Regardless of the floorboard Quaaludes,

Fake ID’s, THP maryjane, ripped mattress tags.
Trunks full of weevil wobbles and Rural Vale.
The news reports all focus on the
Wearing, or absence of, seatbelt rex.

(News Blurb)

“The truck struck three vehicles head-on before

Plummeting down a thousand-foot gorge
Into the only active volcano in Eastern Tennessee.
The driver was reportedly NOT wearing
A safety restraint, BUT he was wearing SAFETY glasses!”

“The French Girls Still Love William”

Though his rhyme time

Passed ‘fore plastic love prime,
They still sav(i)or his prose
The way red paints a rose.

Their parents frown faun

Upon scissor runnings,
Drive-by gunnings, &
All things bunga-bunga.

House security admits The Bard,

All access pass through Abelard.
No one jests, for his bedrests-
Furrowed & shaken glacier fests.

The plight & pain,

The flight & fain-
Of the loves not wisely but
Too well-scarred offspring.

“Ohh-La-La” the French Girls sigh,

When his magic van rumbles down
Northumberland anon & doles out
All things fair & foul- Bill Pills.

Bereft of a thrill in the fast lane?

Remember, re mem thee Bard’s Tale,
Summer Ale, New Rochelle,
Secrets you neither tell or reve(a)l.

Cloaked in red velvet,

A caped/encased Ophelia,
Trapped under water, maybe ice,
Singing “sur le pont d’avingnon…”
Once, twice, thrice~

“The Liberation of Palestine Avenue”

The Gooch house has no birds.

Lady of the corner tear smiles

When flattered with a hot iron or

Serenaded with pennies sink plinking.

(She once had potential,

She once drew horses,

She once was Queen HC,

She once breathed freewill)

Dreams afford snatches of sanity,

The dawn brings renewed sadness-

Hus bland’s welcome to the light

“You’re no love, just a placeholder wife.”

To sleep in silent lucidity, to find peace;

These goals Mahalia met for her muse.
Grey night shades gave sway to last tragic day,
The Gooch house has no birds.

“Hundred Dollar Bill”

‘Write my name down on a Franklin,

Then throw a smile my way after after,
-Race me over in the hof lane
Then try your best to ex plain
Why the reason for the season is you.’

“Can you drive a tractor?

Can you drive a ‘Cedes?
Can you drive a man straight,
To the depths of Hades?
Will the water float truth
Or drown it like Ophelia?
Trust the name you write now,
‘Cos soon you gonna hug ground.”

 

(Feel the dirt around you,

Tuggin’ breath out of you,
Pine tree be a cryin’,
South wind be a sighin’,
Lay you now a  dyin’.)

“Nightbirds Redux”

In the wee hours

We sing our dreamsong.
Still air dances with
Sweet secret movement.

There is no spoon,

Nor is there echo any
Ever from puresong,
Trailing verbs & reverb.

Silent hay rolls

Hide shadows within
Dark music mosaics-
Reality abstracted view.

Turns taken in sync,

Bereft of timekeepers,
Ruleseekers and rakes.
Smooth as light reflected.

In the fleeting eclipse end,

Where most sleep awakens
Our songs fly away with us
To the other side of the world…

“Easter Grass on Route 66”

Jimmy Dean sausage is tasty.

Guess he knew what he was doing.

Never will miss Tellico or Ballplay,

Something dark lives in the bogs there.

Lighting a candle for Ted, remembering

Basketball games and scottyburgers.

The rivers here are dry, hardened arteries.

Where are the mobile home parks out west?

My cat detests liver, he leaves them for me.

Eating as road crosses whisper “He Lives!”