Midst his playfulness,
I could find gracefulness;
Midst pugnacity,
Great amicability;
Bravery wrapped in fear,
Foolishness enveloped cheer;
He chased rats and cats,
And humans he thought burglars;
His irritability outwitted sociability,
Aggressiveness withstood passivity;
Seeming treachery,
Couldn’t hide his loyalty;
It’s hence when he died for me,
To protect me from an accident to be;
Words like defender or Savior,
I found, could never define his behavior...
11 January 2022
Wearing masks in check-out today
Computer glitch meant delay
Thought I'd strike up a conversation
Chase the boredom away
My first target looked at me strange
OK, his right, didn't think much of it
'Til the second fellow eyed me the same
Hmm, I thought. Gotta rise above it
The third fellow visibly shrank back
I felt that sociability was under attack
Don't think I'll frequent that store again
I'll take off my mask and make me a friend
I see them most days now in the street,
Neanderthal look-a-likes,
Who only grunt when I give them a hearty good day,
Bent double over their phone,
Gripping it like a prize bone
Bearing a sharp resemblance to prehistoric man,
Who could not yet stand upright,
Showing no signs of sociability or co-operation,
Traits that sowed the seeds of doom,
For that branch of Man-kinds family Tree.
At the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas,
Souper poets are drinking Bahama Mamas.
Casino games are set aside every night
as Soupers take the stage to read poems they write.
Ladies dress up as mermaids and men as sailors,
not outfits that can be found at Lord and Taylor’s.
With many applause breaks and standing ovations,
attendees are inspired to share verse creations.
The thrill of conventions can’t be understated;
members have personal encounters long awaited.
Masks will fall from some who chose anonymity --
no avatars stifle their sociability.
A winged warrior and silent one are revealed
as all members’ true identities are unsealed.
No longer will there be conflict on the Soup site;
when we meet people, we’re obliged to treat them right.
With plans for another gathering underway,
adversaries’ best qualities are on display.
Vows to interact online as they do in person
are pledged by all Soupers without any coercion.
Conventions like this serve such a worthy purpose
and some long-lasting friendships are sure to surface.
*March 15, 2019
For Line’s Soup Convention contest
in the castle, it smells like acid
it makes my nose bleed, and burns my skin
it's okay, though, we live with it
you love your future, you love your minions
you call them cool like they're not very putrid
it's okay though, i live with it
palace boy, don't you want to leave this city?
are you married to the oddities
of the gold trash people, prince of the community
you hate this place but you hate saying goodbye
to us grody ass clowns
to your high class status in this lower class town
aggressiveness, confidence
you're aware of what they wear, what their hair is
you've got no mind, but you've got your sociability
you're no better, just made of leather
from their skin, while you get all your things done
you think you're king but you know nothing 'bout your kingdom
palace boy, don't you want to leave this city?
are you married to the oddities
of the gold trash people, prince of the community
you hate this place but you hate saying goodbye
to us grody ass clowns
to your high class status in this lower class town
Will it all go?
Decades of sociability,
dancing to Glenn Miller's music,
the funhouse laugh,
You have your mother's smile?
Temporary lapses
Robbing all normal habits
of appropriate conversation,
of money matters,
answering machines,
televisions, and
stoves.
Depression:
Recollection of voids,
but hair in place,
clothes coordinated,
disposition- sweet,
charm intact.
Will it all go?
The charisma,
the humor,
the love?
Middle-aged hands
still grasping
you
to
stay?
He asked for directions
It was a train ride and a walk that mirrored mine
We were apart on the train
My minimal sociability
We met in the roar of passengers
A second offer of navigational help was given
We strolled with small introductions and talked
The ticket office prompted our fission
A Mediterranean farewell
Tomorrow comes today when laptop leads time astray
as we forget ourselves as news junkies or by studying celebrity,
as if we miss anything we will take the rap as though any
information is all; there are no higher forms like knowledge,
let alone wisdom distilled by thought, experience and time,
because to rise up this hierarchy is such a bloody bore.
Today is tomorrow as human nature does not change,
if at all; history is always in flux and luck bad and good
try to make or break us, yet progress does exist seeing
longevity that would make even our recent ancestors
laugh with incredulity; this long lingering kiss or exhausted
breath, hopefully bringing individuality and sociability if not in
mutual harmony then in positive creative, as education enhances
us and wealth enables us to us our spiritual gifts (however defined)
guiding us so that we in the West for all our faults and failings are both
a beckoning beacon and a warning lighthouse to a world that Bill Gates
so audaciously or arrogantly claims, will in twenty or so years time expunge
all poverty even if the world, or we try in dreadful symmetry, trip all beings up?
I have endeavored to retreat behind common experience
Finding salvation far from transcendental
Happily plotting meaning as if some wisdom was
Possessed, only to be shown through the veil of
An incantation that the lines hardly end in the
Most appropriate places, clinging rather to a
Need for old-fashioned sociability
Yet remaining far beneath, crying perhaps too
Loudly for its own sake, the doubt--
Cloaked as existence to the flawed so trampled
By the unattainable light reserved for
Men of glass whose honesty shatters the helpless
Sinner sacrificed to misfortune
'Tis a thing of beauty this universal gladness
I only hope its meaning is revealed to its
Author in a way far too brilliant to be
Extraordinary
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