
Thesaurus Blues

ANOTHER NO CREMATION VOTE
Never appearing in a Shakespeare play alas
yet not wanting to give up
the outside chance
of the Yorick role
A POET WALKS INTO A BAR
Have you seen my horse
No
Any priests, Irishmen or rabbis
No
How about a Black Russian
PLAYING OLD 78s AT THE NURSING HOME
Aunt Myrtle
skips a groove from time to time
The needle, still diamond sharp
plays 1952 for a round or two
Then the niceness of the people here
grandpa’s bad temper, and the size
of the long kitchen at the farm
The sweetness of her husband
sometimes here and sometimes gone
and where is he now?
Reminded that he died some years ago
with quick humor still intact, replies
That would explain why he never comes to visit
The “Lure of the Limerick” book’s at my side
The one I had sought far and wide
I was sad to discover
Some dirt on the cover
And happily much more inside
REMEMBERING THE
Architects of Texas
are often charged with the task
of adding a little southern charm
to an eastern chain’s boxlike plan
So
that is
why you’ll see
Spanish Mission touches
on the top and corners of the
new hotel out on Airport Road
Holiday Inn Alamoed
OLIVE OIL
In Greece last week
I bought a bottle of extra virgin olive oil
Which is a bit more expensive than the
regular virgin kind
I expect that it is due to the labor involved
tying all the branches apart
So that they don’t even touch themselves
DAD AND ROY
Dad and Roy were the best of friends
they drank and fought and played
and laughed like nobody laughed
for fifty years and more
Dad had a room in the nursing home
way down at the end of the hall
when Roy was admitted as well
a nurse wheeled him down that hall
They sat footrest to footrest a minute
then Roy said “So it’s come to this”
and they both had a hell of a laugh
Dad died in late December
Roy lasted three months more
They are buried twenty feet apart
in the prairie town where they played
I can see them there now
sitting on their shiny new stones
having a smoke and a chew
and a good pull on a forty of rye
Roy says “So it’s come to this”
and they both have a hell of a laugh