At last call to roar he staggers ahead full bore

His life’s edging catastrophic:
Seldom hoisted a trophy
Spouted but faux philosophic
Wrote no endearing strophe

Field of ‘talents’ left too long fallow
guts now weak, motivation shallow

Still calls for resuscitation
tries stagger ahead full bore!
No time for procrastination
tries charge with a last gasp roar:

As better a bullet in one’s heart
than fleeing and shot in one’s rear part!

Dropped anchor without rancor

Of rosy hued vigor drained
off course veered, dropped anchor
‘Just’ causes no longer feigned
subsided rush, rancor

Hearing himself he cringes
pompous in the arcane
Laboring on the fringes
struggling with the mundane

No longer plagued in the throes
of fables lastly shorn
About nothing much he crows
gray, worn – but not forlorn

Muscovite turned Costcoite

She left ’Solidarity Among Workers’
of Russian People generous and tough
joined here ‘Me-First Apolitical Shirkers’
eager devour abundant, gleaming stuff

Yana’s road steep, long & hard
on feet, bags & credit card

Ever since setting that noble goal
of Costcoite she’s persisted
been excelling in her newfound role
quick, astute, shrewd & tightfisted

+)
-Costcoite: an ace category shopper at Costco
-Muscovite = in this case our neighbor Yana, formerly of Moscow, where her giggles still echoe in its abandoned streets

To slick pretense we got inured

Corporation stock ‘worth’ billions

while people down on their luck
CEOs ‘make’ untold millions
while others squeeze a last buck

Once solidarity discarded
those in need shall be derided
as irresponsibly retarded
their gripes dismissed as misguided

Integrity by now denuded
to slick pretense we got inured
How did we become so deluded
from justice so easily lured?

 

 

 

Affinity, so what of it?

Sally’s nose, prose & fashion
how she’s just too cloying
Frank’s political passion
ain’t he too annoying?

But bothering with affinity
surely pure prickly vanity?
Best left to saints & divinity
not fallible humanity

We shan’t change them: She’ll sally forth
while he’ll keep on thinking he’s Njorth

+)
Njorth = (Njörðr in Norse mythology) god of the sea, winds and prosperity

Of diets & workouts loath

Some 50 percent  of U.S. dogs and cats are now overweight or obese shows a recent study conducted by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention. But dogs and cats do have some catching up to do. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the percentage of human adults age 20 years and over who are overweight, including obesity, now stands at 69.2 percent (2009-2010)

On their chomping paths unswerving
lazy pets & owners self-coddling
plumb bodies waddle, out-curving
in ‘putting on weight’ role modeling

Hey humans, wheezing, grasping:
“Eat less, walk & don’t kvetch!”
Hey pets, out of breath gasping:
“Get up, out, run & fetch!”

Clearly pet & owner both
of diet & workouts loath

Leaves piling on Autumn rides beguiling

Past thinning trees ablaze
on roads wetly glaced
In sunlit lukewarm haze
hills pumpingly paced

Slim tires splashing
through leaves stockpiling
Cyclists dashing
on rides beguiling

Linger the last Autumn days
lustrous, crisply tender
Under Winter’s furtive gaze
fades Fall’s cerise splendor

+)
pumpingly = as in pedaling hard, i.e. ‘pumping’ the pedals

 

Flyacious flight in Fall

They used to all together
peskily be swarming
flew in all sorts of weather
as well farm ‘barn storming’

Now one buzzes alone
feebly, risking stall
by cold, shifting winds blown:
The Last Fly of Fall

Flight pattern erratic
dropped altitude
traumatic, near static
down on attitude

Hark jarring vibration!
Horror! Airspeed drops!
Fatal vacillation!
Tail spin, then fly flops!

It has crashed, feet in air:
its worn wings wrinkled
lit emergency flare
shows fly parts sprinkled

A fly whom the Gods love dives young
still vivacious, hellacious!
Those who fly too long live unsung:
turn loquacious, vexatious!

Sorting paper clips by color

Who might you be to berate?
Hold your holy holler!
My sorting aim simple, straight:
paper clips by color

To you perhaps a clip mere wire
cavalierly curved metal
its ingeniousness won’t inspire
or found lacking its mettle?

While to me colored paper clips
strew paths like do rose petals
May distract like succulent lips
Prove gallantry like medals

But then I, like the clips, I consent
am as well of a peculiar bent