Through the Motions
Through the Motions
Is my rigor amazing? Well, no.
But a habit is seeking to grow
From the soil that is I.
In my own way, I try.
Through the motions I zealously go.
–Tom Riley
Through the Motions
Is my rigor amazing? Well, no.
But a habit is seeking to grow
From the soil that is I.
In my own way, I try.
Through the motions I zealously go.
–Tom Riley
Waking World
The world is waking up. “Go back to bed!”
I bellow – but it’s paying no attention
And manifesting neither scorn nor dread.
The world is waking up? Go back to bed,
Obnoxious world! Our suffering is fed
By consciousness: that’s more than mere convention.
The world is waking up. “Go back to bed!”
I bellow – but it’s paying no attention.
–Tom Riley
Safe Distance
Flee if you like. But try to realize:
There’s truly no safe distance in the end,
Despite a thousand optimistic lies.
Flee, if you like. But try to realize
That you’ll be visible to waiting eyes.
Your comfort’s not what waiting hands intend.
Flee if you like – but try to realize
There’s truly no safe distance in the end.
–Tom Riley
Pretty Boy
Why must Helen,
chosen for beauty, be condemned
for choosing beauty?
–Tom Riley
Talkative
“I have issued new teachings galore,”
Said Pope Francis. “I am, at my core,
One real talkative guy.
Wise restraint can’t apply.
Why not try it again? What’s one more?”
–Tom Riley
Unending
The idiocy will
continue until at last you
all smarten up.
–Tom Riley
Bulk of the Day
You have wasted the bulk of my day.
Beyond that, I have little to say.
Time departs, then arrives.
It’s the stuff of our lives.
Thanks to you, mine has just drained away.
–Tom Riley
Rot in Hell
If you do in the end go to Hell,
My curse won’t be the cause. Cast a spell
Of that sort I cannot.
Still, in Hell may you rot!
If you do, it’ll strike me as swell.
–Tom Riley
Defiance
Lightning struck near his feet. “Miss your aim?”
He inquired of the Thunderer. “Tame
I am not, let me say.
You throw thunderbolts, eh?”
Two can play that electrical game!”
–Tom Riley