EXTINCT BIRDS

If the lonely young woman still exists,
Who once viewed her world
Through your eyes,
It might brighten a few mornings
For her to know that she is still remembered.
Even now, after more than
A half century has come
And gone away.

Mann und Kind

One does not eat soup
With the long spoon.
It is used for meat alone;
The living flesh of those
Who, leaving care
Filled homes,
Filled holes
In fields
Of France
And else
Where rot the dreams
Of 'Mann und Kind' of
Europe's lonely Womanhood.


('Long Spoon' == The bayonet).

Long Run

Congress has some plans for us.
In a long run they might work.
In a long run we'll be healthy.
In a long run (please don't smirk).

In a long run we will be employed.
In a long run we'll be fit.
In a long run we might be annoyed.
By all that fractional wit!

An Ode To Brian Lamb

I'd rather be hung upside down, by my tongue
Than be served up news smothered in ham.
And yet that is what's done on each channel save one,
Save the channel that carries CSPAN.

For there one finds news, midst some strongly voiced views,
Phoned in by some woman or man,
And though sometimes I frown, what makes it go down
Is the flavour of well seasoned Lamb.

Fear

Inside each moment,
When there's little to give,
There's an instant when
Coward and Hero both live.

The battles which rage then
Are given no names,
Or tearing of banners,
Or bursting of flames.

And yet, in a way
That we fear most of all,
It is there, in that instant,
We stand or we fall.

Miki

Like the wetness of our
Two bodies,
Must I remember always,
Even beyond this life,
How time has turned our fire
Into ashes?

ARGIVE

If you've sent for to know how the future will go,
Well then, this, I suspect, is the law:
We will outlive the Czars, and the Red Commisars,
But we'll still know the Bear by its claw.