Good Old Grandpa
My grandpa,
is as round shouldered as a question mark
and he is led about all day
by his wobbly walking stick,
with teeth that aren’t real,
hidden behind a moustache that is
while his memories simmer warmly
inside his crinkled paper bag of a face.
My grandpa,
old and worn on the outside
but sparky and fresh on the in.
For he often,
shakes my hand with fifty pence pieces,
makes sweets pop out from behind his ears
then smokes all like a train
and laughs like one as well.
My grandpa,
Plays jokes on my mother
to freshen her face with a smile
then tells me stories which electrify my brain.
But best of all,
when my dad loses his temper,
Gandpa just tells him
to sit down and behave himself.
Good old grandpa!
The perfect indication
a smirk, with some flirtation
a special night
for dating
do you wanna dance with me
Suggestive comments got me thinking
that atta-bouis
and all that winking
laning on me
got me thinking
you wanna dance with me
aint got the right stuff for staying
work in the morning my Boss aint
playing
But you got me wanting
some forward thinking
the night aint through
when the band finishes playing
I got a kiss
after a whisper
the gentlemen said
she called me her Mister
Right night
the romance of the mmusic
dancing
smiling and grooving
what a night
what a romantic evening
got a foolish man
beleiving
take my time
clm all the feelings
freshen up for a specail evening
Wind, come surround me with your timeless gust.
Freshen up my numb body so I can move again
Sun, direct your rays to unfreeze my brain.
Lighten up my clouded mind so I can be reasonable again
Moon, sparkle my nights along with the stars.
Shine through my darkest hours so I fear no more again
Water, splash me with your ever cleansing power.
Wash off doubts in my soul so I can trust myself again
Fire, warm me with your burning flame.
Melt the madness so I can cry tears of joy this time
Rain, drop less than usual on my way.
Sprinkle me lightly please so I can have myself space and time
When night is over, another day to conquer.
And it goes on and on all the time.
A cacophonic silence,
A mere blanch of a catastrophic faliure,
A maroon in a sickening mirage,
'tis a shade one more,
As a ray one less,
Fairing smiles adiue,
Requiem of a chastised face,
Lay a bed,
O'er wond'rous, to waste.
Where'n freshen lie fast in his daze,
Merry may go his hour,
Time shroud.
However vivid,
a weary slumber ,
Is but man's sorry tire,
Weeping sore,
Once dreaded in languishment,
Once cowered behind the stars.
Not an eye unopened,
Nor a God that sleeps.
everyday i wake up for the next day
everyday I get in the shower before school
everyday I get dressed and brush my teeth
everyday I freshen up to get ready and head to school
everyday I lock in for school and get as much done as I can
everyday I finish my school assignments and head to work
everyday I go to work and make money after school
everyday I finish work and enjoy the rest of my day
Jumping might be my favorite word
or frolicking, prancing, dancing
anyway, it’s something with an ing ending
I can assure you of that
I get sick of throwing down the same words
feeling redundant and trite once again
I have no idea how to freshen my mind up
to spin things around to other words
what about words with d endings?
placid; lucid, horrid, morbid.
I see why these won’t work.
Still I try to jump off my dendrite track.
to get away from my blaring mediocrity.
To no avail, for every blank sheet of paper
is yelling for me to throw down jumping or dancing
and so I do, and so I do.
Nature heals, I say
The air that I breathe freshen
Walk into the woods.
Hot met? No problem
Drink juice, eat fruits that freshen
Try ice cream Magnum.
Yet another funeral
Another old friend gone,
Not many of us left now
As time grinds on and on.
This was goodbye Big Tony
Of the last five years of
My indisciplined wild life
Before I was rescued by
Marriage and a loving wife.
Days of weekend long parties
Starting Friday nights in the pub
With just snatched hours of sleep
Until a Monday morning cold scrub
To freshen the face, and on to work
To somehow endure the day
Boosted by strong hot coffee
To help it on its way.
Then our lives parted as he
Assumed his new way of life
Travelling the wide world
Absentee husband, lonely wife
While I travelled locally
Away for weeks on end
And so I saw less and less
Of my good living friend.
Over the years we would meet
Nearly always by pure chance
Friends still but parted by
Life’s changing circumstance.
Eventually I heard
Just end of lifecare
And all too suddenly
He was no longer there.
Today it was fitting to stand
To remember at his life’s end
To think of him for a while and
Say goodbye to my old friend.
Cheers Big Tony
The Untruth Of A Lone And Erroneous Prophecy
What has a prophetic death done to this poor soul
the merest thought of sleeping under freshen sod
stir the urgent flames, hefting in more Irish coal
is it true Fate will soon strike me with angry rod?
Shall the sky its higher heavens thus so soon part
or maybe earth will hear, spit open a new grave
My dearest angel, fear not, still thy fearful heart
Faith and Truth will issue edits to my heart save!
Hold certainty, my life is to ever flow on
And honey-cast dawn wake to me love ever-more
Yes, you shall sing in your sweeter romantic tone
As we in our bliss dine on paradise's gold shores.
There is no dark that can easily take my life.
Fate cries out, you will be my ever-faithful wife.
Robert J. Lindley, dark sonnet
Jul 1 27th, 1977
Note. True story, a woman predicted my early demise when I was just 23 years old.
Hmm. I am 69 years old now, somebody missed by a few years.
Sitting in a coffee shop,
slatted chair back creaking as she chews
on the knock-knock joke of a long ago
eating popsicle.
It’s a hot day.
She says that before the modern
toothbrush, people brushed teeth with boar’s hair brushes,
& before that they chewed on sticks,
& before that even they chewed on fennel stalks
to freshen their breath.
“& before that?” I asked.
Apparently, before that people didn’t eat bread,
or fill their stomachs with refined sugar.
Why she knows the history of toothbrushes
I may never know. Perhaps she wanted
an explanation for why she chewed so long
on knock-knock jokes.
Who’s there?
Rain
It has just started raining, from the sky it falls so well, almost a thought reminds me, that I’m trapped in this loveless hell, yet how water like tears make do, harboring sinister burdens made through, but to freshen resist come new, the pain that grows within me, my broken heart can now persue…
A white plastic bag flapping on a stark tree
acts as a windsock if I needed one – I don’t.
The GPS guides my mind upon a flickering map
toward salt water
where silver fish are leaping into the cold air,
gulping at a low-hanging haze.
Still as stone is the marbled sky.
I have yet to arrive,
the shore is bereft of place and time yet.
We will all freshen up later.
Until I am there
I travel incognito using a name
I once found in a book of minor sorrows.
My niggling fret this day is a longing for the sea
here in the middle of a prairie
where buffalo slowly much the miles ahead.
The rolling rubber is impatiently whirring,
pining out here, speeding over dry dinosaur bones.
Five hundred aqueous daydreams ahead
a shore fish-restaurant is already
opening its doors.
The seas gentle lapping licks
at children's feet,
bathes the beach goer
in a cooling wash to freshen
nerves from summer's heat.
The afternoon settles down
beneath the drowsy shade
of beach umbrellas
and colourful tents and begins
to dream its numbing dream.
Yesterday, just beyond
the reach of someone's sleep,
the same calm water
took a life not far from where
it now bursts tiny bubbles
to tickle little feet.
What you have done is what you have seen,
now its new years what do you
want to be?
Most people right now have
not made a resolution, if that’s one
of you, make it fast and give your contribution!
Do something this new year’s, it’s
for your own good, so now decide what you
want to do this year and freshen up your mood.
New Year new you!
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