Hills
As I fight my way over tough hills,
I am honing quotidian skills.
Life would just like to say
hills pop up every day–
as do various unforeseen ills.
–Tom Riley
They Grow Up
They grow up–
and it’s all gone in
a puzzled instant.
–Tom Riley
The Rescuer
I’m rescuing a fragment of the day.
I don’t think I shall get a medal, though.
Challenging is the game I choose to play:
I’m rescuing a fragment of the day
from idleness that doesn’t fade away
and emptiness that cannot help but grow.
I’m rescuing a fragment of the day.
I don’t think I shall get a medal, though.
–Tom Riley
Passwords
Ah, with passwords you dare to begin
to conceal all your virtue and sin!
Up the window is popping–
but, dear sir, I’m not stopping:
I am sure that at last I’ll hack in.
–Tom Riley
Mixology
Don’t add hot
coffee to your wine except
in your stomach!
–Tom Riley
Wiser and Braver
Bending my principles, I drink the white.
(The fact is that there isn’t any red.)
Sometimes it’s wiser — braver — not to fight.
Bending my principles, I drink the white.
I’m stooping, surely, from a lofty height.
I wish that I were climbing up instead.
Bending my principles, I drink the white.
(The fact is that there isn’t any red.)
–Tom Riley
Dear Breakfast
Ah, dear breakfast, how proud you must be!
Oh, your future’s a fine one to see!
You are acing the test!
You’re becoming the best!
You will soon be transformed into me….
–Tom Riley
The Liberator
Mr. Mentz cries: “I will not rot in Hell–
for all my actions have been virtuous!
I’ve been more virtuous than I can tell–
for modesty is quite imperious
in this, the castle of my heart! And thus
it always is for those who lead with zeal:
their perfect eloquence, which makes no fuss,
can’t quite express the perfect way they feel.
But, then again, they cannot quite conceal
the shining points of their nobility.
Of my own virtue I make no big deal–
but isn’t it just evident in me?”
Up to applaud damned souls are glad to leap.
Devils for miles around snore loud in sleep.
–Tom Riley
Ten Minutes
Ten minutes I shall grant you, sir.
Make your peace with eternity!
In my heart mercies swell and stir.
Ten minutes I shall grant you, sir–
because I’m not a torturer.
I hope that you will soon agree.
Ten minutes I shall grant you, sir!
Make your peace with eternity!
–Tom Riley
Flammeus Gladius 