Young Man From Peru

//young man from peru

There is a young man from Peru,
Where summer is winter, boohoo.
He speaks 7 tongues,
Has strong legs and lungs,
Skate boards down from Machu Picchu.

The Sadness of Proximity

//Einstein

The Sadness of No Proximity

If Einstein had been born near me instead
I can’t help but wonder what he’d have said
Re the cucumber vine, which does displace
Far more than its namesake: nine feet of space,
Bears a flimsy, quickly shriveling flower,
With E=mc2 of an hour.


He might have have complained that gophers don’t eat
Cucumber vine like a vegetable treat.
It grows on fences, it winds around trees,
And soon dies, leaving tangled vines and leaves.
Maybe he would say what I will now say:
I wish cucumber vines would go away.

Lies

Gold Honorable Mention March 17, 1997
ALIBI A LIE?
An alibi
can be a lie, or not.
If it’s not something
that you falsify, but something
you can verify, it’s not
and you can prove it
by-and-by.
If you’re accused of poaching partridge,
and cigar ashes are found
on the ground
by Sherlock Holmes who’s
on your case,
helping you
erase the threat of
impending disgrace,
of being called a noble liar when you say
you were in your club that day.
and your alibi falls through
when the new waiter doesn’t
remember you,
with Holmes
you won’t
lose face because
a trace of tobacco
ash is found and
recognized by Holmes,
shown to be
a commonplace
brand used by
rough types
from Lye
and not, as originally thought,
the kind you, the Earl of Y., buy.
Puff, puff,

(page 2, Southwood, continue stanza)
ALIBI A LIE?

you’d rather die
than tell a lie,
being a Dr. Watson
kind of guy.