Teutonic Nights

The thingy thing
and the shiny shine
all come together
as they are mine.

A local carpenter uses
a file that files the fine
round edges on the wood,
oak, or even on soft pine
boards to build a table
at which you will dine
with a Viking Chieftain
or something of the kind.

The thingy thing
and the shiny shine
all come together
as they are mine.

Maybe a Teutonic warrior
who dreams of the Rhine
land where his father
would drown in his stein,
breathing deeply the nectar
of the intoxicating vine.

The thingy thing
and the shiny shine
all come together
as they are mine.

At this suggestion he looks
at you, a drawn battle line,
and yells an accented,
“Nein!”

And the thingy things
and the shiny shines,
they all come together
as they are mine.

A Cigarette Package

Is not the sun
shining on the corner
here? Do we not feel
the haze created
by the fire engines as they
extinguish the blaze
burning in the trashcan?

Perhaps not, but we
stand still at this
corner, waiting for
the light to change
red. Only then can we
walk. Maybe home?
You throw the rubbish
on the ground
and we walk away.

Cigarettes and Coffee

The smart woman in the Parade
magazine often runs a contest
where readers send in their
definitions of some phenomenon
whose prime mover is poorly
understood. Often, these contests
arrive with some pun readily employed.

One, which must have run years
ago by now, was about the Theory
of Relativity. As I remember,
all the responses printed
had something to do with inane
familial relationships. There
I was, reading the Sunday
funnies, my mother smoking
cigarettes, and drinking Folgers
coffee. She laughed at how true
one of those replies was. She read it
to me, saying that the theory really was,
“The older you get, the more you
become like your parents.”

Today, while I smoke cigarettes,
and ignore a cup of stale coffee,
I thumb through an old textbook,
looking for the right equations
to help a poem I’m trying to write.
With this act, I wonder how
correct that long ago submission is,
and I wonder
also, “Should I be afraid?”