Trip to the Vampire State
I’m in the realm where Cuomo Junior reigns.
I must admit I’m missing Jerry Brown.
My sense of inborn liberty complains:
I’m in the realm where Cuomo Junior reigns!
He beats his hairy chest, expands his veins,
and is supreme as tyrant and as clown.
I’m in the realm where Cuomo Junior reigns.
I must admit I’m missing Jerry Brown.
–Tom Riley
Not Drowning
You weren’t drowning. Your many fans cheered.
Precious breath, sir, has not disappeared
from your lungs. It’s still there!
Of your life I’m aware.
You weren’t drowning. It’s just as I feared.
–Tom Riley
Giant Ambition
“I shall shatter the earth!” he declared.
At his great size the populace stared
with misgivings immense.
By ensuing events
was his attitude swiftly repaired.
–Tom Riley
Famous Name
I was thinking of whom I could blame
for injustice that time cannot tame,
for the lives spoiled by lies
and the sad dream that dies.
Lucky me: I remembered your name!
–Tom Riley
Stun Gun
“By my stun gun, now charged with a fund
of sheer energy, foes are outgunned!”
So I said then, fierce foe.
After trying, I know
that it’s not true. For you were born stunned….
–Tom Riley
Hard Things
Are you needing to get hard things done?
Do they grow on your list, one by one,
till you see no escape?
Hey, there, guy, don’t go ape!
Just eschew every vestige of fun….
–Tom Riley
Fulfillment
In the desert
he longed for water — then
the floods came.
–Tom Riley
Historic
It’s historic. So boldly say you.
It’s historic. Repeated anew,
that assertion’s a bore,
you damn son of a whore!
What’s historic is sickening too.
–Tom Riley
Lawn Tech
Next door’s leaf blowers give me the shakes–
and my head’s looking forward to aches
of which noise is the sign.
Hey, efficiency’s fine–
but a neighbor prefers simple rakes.
–Tom Riley
Flammeus Gladius 