Glad Tidings

The rainbow is God’s promise

Not to end all life again

A sign that all He wants is

For mankind to be His friend.

Forgiving past transgressions,

God protects Man as he goes

And yet, we’re right to question:

What’s the deal with volcanoes?

Darwinner

The hunch that Evolution sold

Extolling those who break the mold:

Life’s go-getters, the versatile

Does not include the crocodile.

Throughout its 80 million years

As each Age comes, then disappears

Left standing in the starting blocks

The croc has yet to change its socks.

Quite unconcerned with each debut

Of nature’s latest ingénue

These veterans forgo the pomp

In favor of a stagnant swamp.

In life, the way to win the race

Is at a slow but steady pace

The croc has this down to an art

Plus 80 million years’ head start.

A Wake At Night

I did you wrong

No other way to say it

No other way to play it

This is our song.

A careless lie

You lingered in the doorway

No words, but this was your way

Of saying goodbye.

Don’t let me go through this alone

Don’t leave me out here on my own.

Tell me who to be and what to say

Just set the rules

I’ll play

Walking through the streets, another stray

Just name your price

I’ll pay.

But you’re not here

Some time now since we’ve spoken

The last bonds being broken

Cutting you clear.

I heard from friends

You almost wrote a letter

Perhaps, when things are better

But until then…

Those little things we need to do

I’m finding harder to get through.

Tell me who to be and what to say

Just set the rules

I’ll play

Walking through the streets, another stray

Just name your price

I’ll pay.

If I gave you the dice

Would you roll twice?

Grime Scene

When Carter’s party found the tomb

Of Pharaoh King Tutankhamun

They gazed upon the scene with some dismay

At cups and bowls strewn all about

Discarded clothes, some inside-out

In random piles of total disarray.

Add rotting fruit, some moldy bread,

Old board games found beneath the bed

And robbery was feared with utter gloom.

Though if he’d had a son, or two

He would have known, as parents do

That’s how most teenage boys will leave a room.

Camp Sight

What did they face

In such a place

Striking them dumb

Leaving them numb?

Piteous sounds

Cold rifle rounds

The stench of death

In every breath.

No hand to hold

No growing old

Falling as rain.

Never again.

Off The Scale

We sprang from a primordial soup

Of RNA and cosmic goop

We breathed through gills and swam in schools

Among the depths and rocky pools

Bedazzling, streamlined, clad in scales

Propelled by tails with fins for sails.

Until one day, so goes the lore

We cast a fishy eye to shore

And surfed the tide across the sand

To where the water meets the land.

Not ones to walk, we lacked technique

All thanks to our unique physique

But in the end we found our feet

Soon after, gills were obsolete.

Yet, Evolution is perverse

And sometimes throws it in reverse…

For, now we’ve waterparks with slides

We snorkel, sail and scuba dive

We swim with dolphins, live on boats

And teach our small fry how to float.

Tots splash in puddles with delight

While summer’s one long water fight

Still, others love the touch of rain

But when asked Why? they can’t explain.

We left a world now out of reach

The day we clambered up that beach

The price of such a compromise?

This constant need to moisturize.

Hero Material

Batman sports a special cowl

He fashioned from titanium

Spider-Man prefers to prowl

In something called vibranium.

Dad’s a cop whose navy blue

And shield reflect his heart

Granddad fought through World War 2

In boots that fell apart.

Wonder Woman’s golden lasso

Makes folk tell the truth

It’s the way your mother asks you

Which makes her a sleuth.

Superpowers lie within

The clothes don’t make the man

Thor just needs a rolling pin

It’s true

Just ask your gran