White Teeth

White Teeth

 

He possesses white teeth he can grin with—
But he has little left he can win with.
“I’m diminished, I guess,”
He contends. Don’t say yes.
He was never that smart to begin with.

 

—Tom Riley

Darkness

Darkness

 

I converse in a language unknown
With the darkness that says I’m alone.
I protest in despair
that the darkness is there,
But the darkness does not like my tone.

 

—Tom Riley

Barbarisms

Barbarisms

 

Barbarisms infected his Spanish.
All his feminine nouns became mannish.
(That, it’s clear, is a sin.)
Oh, he tried discipline—
But these usages just wouldn’t vanish.

 

—Tom Riley

Gordian Neck

Gordian Neck

 

“Put your neck pain forever to bed!
Random movements you’ll no longer dread!
Hey, it’s easy! You’ll see.”
Really? How can this be?
“Very simple. We’ll cut off your head!”

 

—Tom Riley

Percy Precocious

Percy Precocious

 

In his youth, he was taken for bright.
So he says. Has he got that tale right?
Maybe so. Maybe not.
Does it matter a lot?
No. We now know his intellect’s slight.

 

—Tom Riley

Doctrinal Drainage

Doctrinal Drainage

 

How dare you,
Professor, drain all the divinity
From my thunderstorm?

 

—Tom Riley

 

Kid Convention

Kid Convention

 

To your lies you are overcommitted,
Kid Convention! It makes you half-witted.
Vapors rise up from Hell.
Where’s your damn sense of smell?
You’re a shitter — but easily shitted.

 

—Tom Riley

Damage Control

Damage Control

 

Dear Editor:

Your writer is a peach.
Her story was as good as it could be.
But writers can be difficult to teach.
She erred a little when she quoted me.
The quote was accurate? Well, I agree—
But quoting me in that way was misleading.
I’ve stumbled into water, as you see,
And now the vicious little fish are feeding.

Here in these lines I alter that proceeding
And clearly say I didn’t mean to mean
What I then meant to say. Truth can be fleeting—
And, for my own part, I find truth obscene.

I lay a new heart open for inspection.
I hope you will accept this wise correction.

 

—Tom Riley

Empty Talk

Empty Talk

 

The noise, sir, of your empty talk
Is irritating me in full.
We walk the path we have to walk.
The noise, sir, of your empty talk
Booms on my path and makes me balk.
I can’t endure the lame and dull.
The noise, sir, of your empty talk
Is irritating me in full.

 

—Tom Riley

Less-Than-Final Solution

The Less-Than-Final Solution

 

Final answers, you fiercely contend,
Are the bomb, though they briefly offend.
Your conviction is strong,
but you’ve got it all wrong.
The strange truth is that things never end.

 

—Tom Riley