IN VINO VERITAS
IN GUINNESS LIMERICK
Tis a lovely thing the Limerick
And a pint of Guinness helps it stick
But sad their magic is fickle
And though a little may tickle
Sure and too much of either’ll make you sick
IN VINO VERITAS
IN GUINNESS LIMERICK
Tis a lovely thing the Limerick
And a pint of Guinness helps it stick
But sad their magic is fickle
And though a little may tickle
Sure and too much of either’ll make you sick
A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD
Two Uncle Milties
lived into their nineties
One had economics as his vocation
one called a laugh an instant vacation
Berle would twirl dressed as a girl
till the water ran out of your eyes
While Friedman freed greed
and won a Nobel prize
I leave it for you to apprise
who was silly and who was wise
MAY IN AUSTIN*
Wind in the garden
Mountain Laurel, source of joy
Snapped like a life
*After the monster storm
with hail 4 inches across
hundred year old oaks
torn out by their roots
and our sixty foot laurel
twisted off at 1/3 its height
APRIL IN AUSTIN
After the rain
mountain laurel become
lilacs of childhood
SPRINGTIME IN AUSTIN
Reading old Haiku
And eating the new cherries
Sweetness from two trees
MEMORIAL DAY
Today we honor
those who chose
if choose they did
to serve and die in uniform
For some cause or causes
made noble by
their dying
And by ennobling
perhaps persuade
Is the next day, or the next
for those who shared the hell
but did not dress so well
And their numbers
oh yes, the terrible
terrible numbers
But we best not
speak of numbers
for in death, one
is the only number
And if we cannot
speak of math
can we speak
of aftermath
Land mines in the ground
mass destruction
in slow motion
Land mines in the mind
a uniform heritage
for those who did
and did not wear
a uniform
A moment of silence now
for us all
BRILLIANCE ISN’T EVERYTHING
Diamonds may be
a girl’s best friend
but the coal would have kept her
much warmer last winter
QUESTIONS FOR THE NEXT SÉANCE
Dearest Mother;
Sorry to disturb you
in your well deserved bliss,
but here’s a short list
of things that I forgot to ask
And, if it isn’t too much trouble
I’d like the answers as detailed as possible
It will be understandable
if you can’t conjure up a voice,
but one rap for yes, and two for no,
on a floating table won’t quite do
However, if you can look up Samuel Morse,
(who may well be bored and available),
he can give you a quick-study course
and I will dust off my old Boy Scout manual
I believe “talk to me” In Morse still becomes:
-/•-/•-•/-•- -/— –/•
So, now that we’ve got the hang of it;
– What was the best day of your life
– What was your worst
– Your greatest triumph
– Your greatest disappointment
– What you are happiest that you did
– Saddest that you didn’t
Why exactly did my uncle shoot my dog
Whatever happened to my baseball
card collection, with the rookie
Mickey Mantle
and what is heaven like
HOME
The salt of your tears
is not without power
If you should cry
in a river
It will think
it has already
reached the sea
GREAT PLAINS
The Great Plains used to be
the bottom of a sea
We are the new fish
looking up through the blue
Steadily about
the old family business
of laying down fossils