[Love]

A Valentine
                                    for Dolores -1984

Come close to me and we will show
The world two hearts with love aglow
With radiant power so bright a groove
That through black holes the light will flow.

Move close to me and we will prove
Just how this modern earth will move,
Amazed at Cupid's cleverest,
To smile, to marvel and approve.

Be close to me and we will test
A thousand problems without rest,
With special love of yours and mine
We'll show perfection at its best.

Stay close and hold this valentine,
A special unrelenting sign
Of love forever tender, fine.
Of love forever tender, fine.

[Parody]

Deadly on the Breeze
           With apologies to Housman

Deadly on the breeze the pollen now
Blows in my face from every bough,
Swelling eyes and nostrils wide,
Burning them red at eventide.

Of my three-score snorts and ten
Hundreds always come again
To make my coughing twenty score
And give me fifty sneezes more.

And so to hide from thugs in bloom
I haunt my air-conditioned room.
About each window I will go
To see the spring and bear the woe.

[Two riddles—for Children]

The Cool Man

He had a quiet personality,
A listener
Who was well fed and sedentary.
He stared through dark, expressionless eyes,
And smiled constantly despite his bad teeth.

He never took vacations but
Surveyed peacefully his own back yard,
And always played carefully with children
And never complained about their roughness or About being left alone
When they were called for dinner.

In his youth he had perfect posture
And kept it until his illness brought on
A lopsided, distorted body.
Then, in the Spring, he got worse
And slowly wasted away
Until he finally disappeared,
Leaving only his hat and scarf
For us to hold and say,
"We'll miss you a lot Cool Man!"

The Weird Man

His eyes twinkled
In his full, round, chinless face.
You might call him a fat-head,
For he never spoke
And must have encountered
Indians because
His top knot was scalped.

He had slanted eyes,
An angled nose,
And an open mouth full of pointed teeth.

His favorite hobby was gazing
Out the window to greet
Visiting children.

He only lived a few weeks
Before he shriveled away -
First his mouth,
Then his eyes and nose,
And finally his whole head.

Then we had to clean up
His mess and say:
"You were fun while you lasted,
Weird Man!"