Not only don’t I have one
But nobody else I know
Has an A.I. buddy, or, at least,
Will say that it is so.
I read a lengthy article
About these so-called “friends,”
Which scared me since it doesn’t seem
That these are simply trends.
Creators justify their use
To fill so many needs –
Companionship, approval,
Affirmation, all the seeds
Which we used to plant and nurture
With a living, breathing soul,
When actual relationships
Appeared to be the goal.
The future looms in ways to which
I can’t at all relate,
When real and artificial beings
Manage to conflate.
I’m glad that I won’t be around
When what we can expect
Is that everyone will need
Such a companion to connect.
Our heavenly companions
with endless love
nestling, nurturing
loyalty from above.
Their adoring stares
amass each day
blue eyes looking
beyond our humanity.
As gazing into
the moonlight sky,
these beautiful creatures
bring peace
we all should abide by.
Soothing solace
these peaceful spirits
carried with four legs,
wet kisses and whiskers.
Every reunion treated
as if we had been lost at sea.
The loyalty and unending devotion
a wonderful unique quality.
We hold, cradle and hug
these occasions above and beyond,
with everlasting epilogues.
There will never be anything
as loving and loyal as our dogs.
I held the leash like it was sacred,
I warned that she spooked easy.
He knelt down slowly, extended his hand
like a priest offering sacrament
to a god built from nerves and ribs.
He said good girl too fast.
She bit down to the bone,
drained the smugness from his face—
he earned it, the wound. The scar
would preach a gospel he'd finally believe in.
Now, when he reaches for warmth,
it's with permission. His hand flinches
even when it's safe. The nerves
didn’t come back right, fireworks
in reverse: a cold bloom,
then nothing good.
Still—
there’s a kind of comfort
in knowing how easily a creature
can taste the air and understand
they're not safe,
sense they're being lied to.
And now, I should say,
Beware—
I'm a lot like that.
Furry
Cat dog hamster
Ferret guinea pig too
A fun loyal companionship
Cuddly
(“Loyalty Merit Badge”, 2010, original oil)
Loyal to the Last
In a dream I travel
Some journey of unknown length or destination.
It’s all good at the start
And then quickly becomes harder
A stalled engine, dirty windshield without fluid,
A narrowing road, reduced visibility,
A rocky mountain track where I’m forced
To carry the bicycle
My vehicle has become.
But as I go on and deeper into my solo trek
I still have my trusting pack of dogs
Who eagerly follow
Even as the trail becomes a narrowing ledge
Above the steep drop to a river below
Until eventually it’s all I can do to hang on
As I reach on tenuous holds to the final step
My bike and canine companions abandoned
Behind the last bend.
Dreams if nothing else
Give us snap shots of our mind
Overviews and magnifications of where we are
In a life’s journey that has included
Both the dreamer and his ever morphing dream.
But in the end the dream ends
And all that’s left is the dreamer
And the memory of those companions
Loyal to the last.
(11/8/24)
The grand ambition of love is to find “the one.”
and, of course, to be the one.
It’s a hard combo.
Finding someone amiable, who’s the best lover, your best friend,
confidant, emotional companion, intellectual equal and soulmate.
And, of course, it helps if ‘the one’ likes to dance
and has a little piña colada money too.
And when do you know you've been successful - in year 50?
It’s the holy grail, the age-old dilemma of love and desire.
.
.
Songs for this:
Bullet and a Target by Citizen Cope
Wait Another Moment by The Bingtones
*Image of Earth-Moon Orbit by Pixabay.
Companions of the Night
A life partner advances and sashay
orients a midnight blue chamber room.
Recast as sparkles, prompts unsealed cachet
dawns blessing past twilight upon the groom.
Marital rapture, quietude splendor,
and tantalizing tides affect its mood.
Affections high, stimulate surrender,
low-keyed attractions, reliant subdued.
A bluish globe and whitish counterpart
skirt the heavens and their nearby harems.
Though *two unloved passersby, they depart
like unacknowledged heroic sirens.
Duality, from beginning to end,
luminescence shreds darkness constants friend.
*Venus and Mercury have no moons.
2022 November 17
*1st Place*
Beauty Of Night Contest
~~Sotto Poet: Judging 2022 November 17
RZ & HMS.
To know a true companion; is one of life's joys
To understand what their worth is and why they have such poise
To feel the rich safety, only they can provide
To which all should open their heart and mind, exceptionally wide
To know emotional healing; in the way that they give
To have been privileged to hold them; is to fully live
Time and circumstance make strange companions
For one is fleeting, and the other happenstance,
Still, they walk hand-in-hand through our lives
Like when we experience our first love, perchance.
Together through the tribulations of our first romance
Time and circumstance working together, we see,
What is oft characterized as good fortune and fate
Unknowingly admitting what was inevitably to be.
We wonder, then, if our lives are exquisitely arranged
By the great Master of both time and circumstance
Who, in infinite wisdom, knows what is best for us,
Since it was he who brought us to this crazy dance.
So, it behooves us to consider the two a grand plus
Meandering and maneuvering our complex lives thus.
written February 24, 2022
Sorrow and shadow,
they both follow us around...
for we have no choice!
Ice Cream Companions An Acrostic by James E Lee Sr.
Indefatigable brownies ingest eaten with chocolate cake.
Chewy candies treat nuts and cherries.
English toffees mixed in milk and cream boysenberries?
Crude digests absorb ate to fast brain freeze.
Red strawberries absorb flavor.
Edible earths erode moo cow liquids.
Adjacent frozen earths review.
Mixed topping drizzle chocolate, strawberry pineapples.
1/4/21
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2021©
Met some friends in Central Park,
A meeting overdue.
How wonderful to see them
And catch up on all that’s new!
We strolled around the reservoir
Then found a place to sit –
A shady bench with bushes,
Fore and aft, for just a bit.
As we conversed, a little mouse
Did scurry from the brush
To underneath our bench in quite
A mouse-like frenzied rush.
My friends were quite blasé.
One said, “Just raise your feet a bit.”
The other said, “It’s just a chipmunk.”
(She was full of ****.)
That mouse (or else its cousins)
Scampered back and forth all day,
At least for the entire time
Of our reunion stay.
Still, I must thank my lucky stars
We got to meet and that
The mouse that we encountered
Wasn’t actually a rat!
Tiny boardwalk along the Halifax River
Waiting to see what “catch” nature will deliver
Royal Palms’ fronds rustle in fall’s gentle breeze
No noisy distractions from teens on their jet skis
Cute baby seagull swims above my fishing line
Unlike a pet, this bird doesn’t bark, bite or whine
He knows me well and I can tell he wants to eat
So I toss bait and he bobs his head for the treat
Yet he lingers, craving a flounder or redfish
You see, my companion and I have the same wish
Quick tug at my line; what prize might lie below?
A hefty blue crab emerges as my cargo
With claws and feathers interacting, I’m amused
But break up the fight so no animal’s abused
Such friends make life better for one who lives alone
In a pandemic when isolation’s seeds are thrown
Fishermen appreciate little rays of hope
That grant a smile and make it easier to cope
August 15, 2020
For Silent One’s “Sanctuary” poetry contest
Aches and pains, my back they rend
Day and night without end
To these I painstakingly attend
Faithful companions
Would that they mend!
To all those who are companions to the dying.
Perhaps the least applauded, you work so peacefully,
Providing care and comfort, to those who will not see,
A future life before them, here on Earth, but hopefully,
Their soul and spirit remembered, here and eternally.
But Nurses, Doctors, Friends, whose dilligence displays
The essence of humanity in many diff’rent ways
Love, sympathy, devotion in all those final days
To which their own commitment deserves the greatest praise.
Some may believe that courage, is by the strongest shown,
But it’s another kind of courage, to fight for those alone
Who perhaps, fear their death or, pain, or with hope gone
Have, these caring, loving folk, to help them travel on.
So bless you all, for your courage, and for being simply kind.,
You are the Earthly Angels, and may this verse remind
Us others, who could not begin to know where we might find
Your strengths and wisdom to provide, the ill, with peace of mind.
George Potter
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