King Nebuchadnezzar
groveled in the grass
as Daniel declared
and as the sun rose
the beastly king stared
and then he rose
and stood on two feet
as a humbled human
before the grandeur
of nature’s daily feat.
A sunrise and a sunset
will do that. She who
has eyes to see shall see
the rising majesty
and stand on her own two feet
humbly the sun to greet.

*idea from a meditation
by Frederick Buechner

Everything is a simile;
everything a metaphor;
what’s reality?
embrace the mystery;
give the world a good goosing
and a little “What For.”

How strange it is to see
the irony of billions spent to save
a representative democracy.

A commentator said, “See,
in-order-to save
our representative democracy

we need this one-person-plutocracy,
in this immediacy, to save
our representative democracy.

Irony upon irony, sadly.

He supported Shirley Chisholm
Way back in the day;
Way way back in the day;
And he can’t understand
How we’ve gone astray. 

Five women initially in the field
To now zero 
To now zero, 
Can that be real?
We need a female hero

Or maybe one just competent
And already we’ve had many
Who can count the cost of a penny
And still provide care so urgent
To the ever so very needy. 

Compassion, passion — a real leader.
In any event, we really need her. 

After mild winter,
March winds blew around cold rain
slapping back Snowbirds.

The poets presage,
they say. Poets
lament and rage,
they say.
If that is true and
we have reached
that age,
then, hope-
fully, afterward, it
will be said that
some persons
were very sage
and saved
us from what once
we saw as an
inevitable day
and page
in history — one

against

which

the

poets

raged.

Saw a photo of myself
taken at a recent going
away party for us and
sent via e-mail. Yikes.
In horror, I saw the guy
who can’t possibly be
me. Why do I keep see-
ing, in my dreams, that
I am a handsome, thirty-
three-year-old me? Even
Don Everly is getting
old and a bit broad in
the beam. Yeah, but
still, he does have all
his own hair it would
seem.

6,000 miles round trip
Michigan to Gulf Shores
To Phoenix back to
Michigan — home,
Home, home, wonderful
Trip — the ocean, the
Desert, the friends, the
Clinking of glasses, the
Lab girl, back home on her
Chair sleeping so soundly.
“Are you happy to be home,
Girl?” She isn’t answering.
In the big chair, the mighty
Big chair,
The Lab girl sleeps tonight
In the big chair, the quiet
Big chair,
The Lab girl sleeps tonight –
Ho, ho!
The Lab girl
Sleeps tonight
And so will we.

After 550 miles, he made a
dash for the lobby bathroom
when his wife was checking
in. On his way out of the bath-

room, he grabbed the door
handle and it wouldn’t open.
He tried and tried and tried.
Thank heaven he had his phone.

“Darling, I’m locked in the
lobby bathroom.” It opened just
fine from the outside. He had
been inside. The female clerk

said, “I’ll give it a try.” She did.
She was locked in the men’s
bathroom. He stood very quiet as
she called for help. “Funny guy,”

she said as he opened the door
after a few more yells for help.
The next day after 550 more
miles on down the road, he was

locked out of a motel after tak-
ing the dog out for a pee and he
found that he needed, in the
worst way, to pee, too. Failing

to get in, he peed where the dog
had and he said to the dog, “Girl,
I hope the security camera doesn’t
catch a view of this.” His wife

came to the rescue. Was it the
gods or the curse of the La Quinta
clerk in Tulsa, Oklahoma? As he
entered the motel, he thought he

heard a female, Southern drawl in
the parking lot behind him, “ You’re
such a funny guy.” He quickly pulled
the door closed behind him.

They left their home on Thanksgiving day
to travel south the winter to stay.
The saltwater of the Gulf beckoned
and the waves were just what was reckoned.

After two months of jogging the shore
they said it is time for us to look for more.
And so they headed to the West
to hike the trails with friends the best.

And now it’s time to head for home,
take a break and forget to roam
until the leaves fall and snow does fly
and once again they say, “Bye, bye.”