A nurse takes time
To hang a DNA rainbow strain
Of Christmas bulbs
Along my gray window ledge
He plugged them in
Bringing a campfire glow of embers
Under my lids
And to the shirking corners
And the inflating machines shushing the room
Below
In the cobblestone valley of downtown
Ballerinas of steam
Spin
From paper-pushed vents in the empty streets
Window shopping on Washington Square
Laces of faces and hands
Pressed to glass
Longing for suits at Kositcheks
Or gold and silver from Linn & Owen
Mists jaywalking
And flagging a cold evening of vacated taxis
I dream
Of taking my wife’s hand
Pirouetting her across a crowded floor
At the Green Door
To a band bellowing the flutes of Canned Heat
Flinging sweat again like bathers in an ocean
Kissing and hugging and ass grabbing
Elbows bent with Fireball shots
High-fiving
Imploring return to our basic instinct
The perfect gift
Of lust and love marked by our fingerprints.
Categories:
lansing, dance, depression, fear, loneliness,
Form: Free verse
internal rhyme
Lil knows skill without frill; she’s talented, sharp and agile.
Lady Lil moves in many grooves and improves with each try.
When she sits, she throws fits, but never quits her rally cry.
Lady is her team’s mascot, quite the right sight - non-fragile.
In gym, she skips, does dips, her hips bouncing like jelly;
Observe, at Spring Fling comps, she can swing flags as smooth as cream.
Wearing gloves, she loves her rifle drill - The Dying Doves' Dream.
Boyfriend Bill will wink, then blink in sync with her belly.
Lil’s so zealous; Bill gets jealous which should compel us while
we examine the famine which is jammin’ in Lansing.
They go dancing and prancing, he has in mind romancing;
but she’s the boss of floss. He is cross, but yields to her style.
May 22, 2019
Overzealousness matched with excessive acquiescence can encourage a famine in relationships. Uplifting can be mistaken for genuine feeling.
Categories:
lansing, 11th grade, character, jealousy,
Form: Rhyme
NOT EAST LANSING AGAIN ?
For your problem, this is the ideal spot for you
Money? Gambling like Vegas? Chancing?
Health? Surgery like in Mayo Clinic? Boil Lancing?
Relaxation? Want to go dancing?
Entertainment? Watch horses’ Lippizaner type prancing?
Sex? Maybe a little romancing?
Unwind? Watch the sunset view - it’s entrancing
Yes you’ve guessed, it’s all possible in East .. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . .Hartford
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
*Another piece of scribble from my “ East Lansing Series ”
Categories:
lansing, dedication,
Form: Monorhyme
KUBLA KHAN IN EAST LANSING
Not In East Lansing did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
But oh! that deep chasm which slanted
Down the green hill east of town
Was a savage place! Holy and enchanted
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A smould’ring sofa momently was forced;
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail:
And 'mid these dancing pieces at once and ever
And sank in tumult to a lifeless sidewalk.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Notes
(1) My thanks to Mr.Coleridge, whose lines are used here.
(2) My apologies for extending my sofa trilogy ( q v ) into a quadrilogy,
but once you’ve seen a burning sofa plunging earthward in East Lansing,
you are a changed man, and can never forget.
Categories:
lansing, parody,
Form: Rhyme
EAST LANSING STRIKES BACK
In winter the buildings drop large dangerous icicles -
Then you’re in the hospital next to the wart-lotion factory
And the retro shopping centre with parking for bicycles
Subsiding into the neighbouring limestone quarry.
People are friendly of course the world over, they say,
But watch out for the burning sofas plummeting down :
Whether by night (running) or (just hurrying) during the day
This is a warm-welcome-for-visitors kind of town.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Categories:
lansing, funny,
Form: Quatrain