Mr. and Mrs. Milleworte and Millicent

meeting Manfred and Mary Murgofrump

at Mortons in the morning

were interrupted by a long pause.

So they left, leaving only the lithe, lingering lips of Linda

to lend some length to the limpid pause.

Linda, being inadequate to initiate even an ill-defined irritant

into the itinerant pause, also left.      

Middleclass Confession

I’ll castigate in catatonic chorus

while the chasm conveniently conceals

that my convoluted cup is condescension.

In the Classroom

Could the minimum-effort people please raise your hands.

Your only assignment will be to lay out plans

for the final innocuoation of the rest of man’s creativity.

And the rest of you, after receiving from their hands

these same formulae will debate them until the sands

of time relegate you all, to the weight room in the basement of the gym.

Meandering Problematically

Cindercrown from down around the valley of the giant

  crawls along the river to revive the not so pliant

citizens of Scenicburg whose more or less defiant

  manner doesn’t matter to the all important client

who plans to build a plant and make them all reliant

  upon the unutopian economy transpirant

that needs a nimble noggin with brain size elephiant

  to dovetail all debates in the controversy giant

until the actors actuate their wills and come a bit more pliant

  to the parlay peaceful piping none of the defiant

energies that eulogized the now encumbered client

  with suits at law so sensitive that he must be reliant

on attorneys that attribute all the legaleze transpirant

  to fellows feeble fumbling with a problem elephiant

and rather than again regurgitate, I’ll quit

  this inane innocence insouciant.       

Your Nonsense

Titled lady, even though it’s in name only, all your hand maidens got their fingers burned

while the butter melted from your oleo gaze, and your robe stepped away from the bath

and left you standing there without a stitch to hem.

Civilization

Democratization, centralization, vilification, consternation, militarization, germification,

biological, ecological, psychological, pathological, homocidal, suicidal,

relenting, unrelenting, predilecting, passively, actively, frustratingly,

scrubbing, polishing, deceiving,

needing, unheeding, receding,

bleeding, bleeding, bleeding.

Scrumpdiddlyumptious

Golly want a gee whiz, thinkin’ in the middle.

Paddle up a creek and then Harrison and Sons will.         

Enchantment in the Middle East

Malady of mind-less, sleepless nights and flights to far off bars off jail cells

with mail slow incoming and plumbing not unworthy of the scurvy

attending those a’mending to the tune of a spoon of hard narcotic

no antibiotic this in a haven of the unshaven student of world history who got caught.

After-the-game Dance

Giggling, a gaggle of gullible girls,

  in the guise of gifted beguilers, are

    until the ganders meander.

        Then watch the eider down.

Contracepting

Deception is a bad word,

Conception is now too, somewhere.

Perception is a word aware

  of the inception of

    a reception by the public of these lines

    as something less than an enthusiastic

    orgy of clapping hands.

Mary had a goat whose hair

  was soft as downy eider.

That is, before he went to school

  and sat beside that spider.

The spider spied the coat so pure,

  he decided then and there,

the web he’d spin when next he spun

  would be of fine mohair.

Now, you may think me slightly daft,

  though I avow this to be true.

So, do believe your ears and hear

  my every word to you.

That octoped set to his task,

  indeed, with greatest fervor,

for all his thought was on the web

  and how he did deserve her.

He spun the hair into a thread

  which he wound ‘round an eraser.

He had the tine to do it, for

  the class was reading Chaucer.

Though his mind was bent,

   oh, yes, intent upon a closing,

the goat was feeling soon the chill

  his loss was predisposing.

He raised a hoof

  and asked, please, that

Miss Jones, can you

  turn up the thermostat?

Then turned he back to where

  the web was nearing a completion,

and realized, now late,

  how swiftly the fruition

of spider’s dream and energies

  had cone to pass.

the web was finished, built,

  A-one, deluxe, first class.

From goat to spider

  then came alive

a steady stream

  of undeleted expletive.

“See how you’ve caused

  my gooses to bump.

You are truly the son

  of a black widow’s hump.”

"Ooh,” said the spider,

  “Please don’t dismay.

Look, see how soft

  is the web. Come and play.”

“I’ve woven it large enough

   for both of us here.

And add to that comfort,

  warmth, and good cheer.”

So the goat, without thinking,

  came up with a thought.

He jumped into comfort and warmth,

  but for naught.

As soon as the goat

  hit the silk, (so to speak),

the spider was on him,

  his strength at its peak.

 The goat was soon down

  and trussed head to hoof,

while spider climbed up

  and onto the roof.

Up top of his lair

  the spider had ready

the grill and utensils

  and barbecue sauce, a la heady.

The charcoals were glowing,

  and, at this, please don’t sob,

the spider would soon

  enjoy goat shishkebab.

Homework

Can the conversation

  and continue if you can

the candid calculations

  you’re considered to control.

The e1ementary English

  you’re so eager to engorge

needs the earnest effort

  of your evermindful eyes.

October 31^st

Gobbling goobers, the goblins

  are treading a tenuous two-step

    to neighbors for favors with

      flavors that scintillate

        all six the senses,

          and muffle the moaning for more

            until they get to the next house.