Get It
“Get a life!” “Get a brain!” “Get a clue!”
Oh, I hear it all each day anew—
All the stuff I should get
That I haven’t got yet!
“Do you get it?” some add. Yes, I do.
–Tom Riley
Triumph
“Ha! I triumph!” “Your triumph’s absurd.”
“You’re just envious. I’m undeterred
And go on with my grin:
Got the last damn word in!”
“True – but, lad, you misspelled that last word.”
–Tom Riley
On the Enumeration of the Reptile Egg
To be bold is what all should resolve.
Stride ahead! Solid walls will dissolve
To make room for the stride
That will not be denied.
Count your chickens before they evolve.
–Tom Riley
Prelude to a Betrayal
“Now we have,” he informed me, “a deal!
Yes, in this we are grappled with steel—
Though in all else we vary.
I need not be unwary….”
My contempt I could hardly conceal.
–Tom Riley
Say On
A dramatic young liar cried: “Hey!
I am misunderstood every day.
I do not truly lie.
Hard, fast rules don’t apply
To my words.” “Yes, that’s what they all say.”
–Tom Riley
Viewmaster
“Sir, your views are in need of repair.”
“May I say that I simply don’t care?”
“That is one of the views
That I view as bad news.”
“Hey, tough luck: I don’t have to be fair.”
–Tom Riley
Immune to Beauty
I am flying now over a lake—
And the beauty should make my heart break.
But my heart’s quite intact.
(I’m reporting a fact.)
Why? I’m blaming some pilot’s mistake.
–Tom Riley
De Gustibus
“With that babe, lovely-limbed, angel-faced,
Walks a loser who should be erased
From existence’s page.
Such sights must invite rage!”
“No accounting, observer, for taste.”
–Tom Riley
Stand in Line
“Stand in line? That is no way to spend
Precious time that is mine. I descend
Not that shamefully low.
To your line I cry no!”
Sir, the lines of our lives never end.
–Tom Riley
Order Restored
The perp sentenced, and order restored,
All the spectators looked slightly bored
With the safety they’d gained.
For excitement they strained.
(That’s what happens when Justice is whored.)
–Tom Riley
Flammeus Gladius 