Richard III versus Riley in a Realm Where Everything Is Relative

Richard III versus Riley in a Realm Where Everything Is Relative

Richard needed a
horse. I’d give my kingdom
for a bathroom.

–Tom Riley

False Dichotomy

False Dichotomy

“If you won’t be my bitch, then you’re a cad!”
That’s what he means no matter what he says.
“A real man would become my underlad.
If you won’t be my bitch, then you’re a cad.
The fact that you resist makes grandma sad.
Submit now to my clever sentences!
If you won’t be my bitch, then you’re a cad.”
That’s what he means no matter what he says.

–Tom Riley

Physicality

Physicality

I’m conscious of my physicality.
Why does the body function as it does—
Maddeningly and inauspiciously?
I’m conscious of my physicality
Anew – and all my conscious cells agree
They’re irritated by the low-grade buzz.
I’m conscious of my physicality:
Why does the body function as it does?

–Tom Riley

Sure Thing

Sure Thing

They malfunction, your neck and your shoulder.
Alas, even by day you feel colder
Than you felt in the past!
Youthful hopes just don’t last.
You’re not wiser at all – but you’re older.

–Tom Riley

Other Raven

The Other Raven

I know your sense of time is different, lord.
Your one eye takes the long and thorough view.
You sent a raven from your wisdom hoard
To Poe, who deftly grasped the dismal cue.
Still, as is known through nine worlds, you have two.
Another must have soared then through the air.
The centuries since then are naught to you.
So, Grimnir, is your messenger still there?
Then send him winging urgently to where
I wait, my mortal blood now growing cooler!
I’d like to hear of how to beat despair
From you, supremely doomed, the hopeless ruler.
Then again, wolfish sir, I don’t insist.
Too many lost Lenores are on my list.

–Tom Riley

Connecting with the Infinite

Connecting with the Infinite

Is it entropy
that I am now feeling
in my bones?

–Tom Riley

Where’d My Elders Go?

Where’d My Elders Go?

Elders thought it my role to defer—
But that deference didn’t occur.
Nowadays I am not
In a deference spot.
But I earnestly wish that I were.

–Tom Riley

Junior Partner

Junior Partner

Biden’s governing, loose as a goose—
But, apparently, far more obtuse.
Folks, don’t sing a sad tune:
Mrs. Harris rules soon!
(She won’t have the dementia excuse.)

–Tom Riley

Right on Schedule

Right on Schedule

Scheduled State of the Union? Joe missed it.
That senescence: it’s hard to resist it!
But had this come to pass—
A display of Xi’s ass—
Right on schedule would Slow Joe have kissed it.

–Tom Riley

Hopeful Sign

Hopeful Sign

 

Have no doubt: China Joe wet the bed.
Dr. Jill woke as warm moisture spread.
Her discomfiture? Slight.
This occurs every night.
It’s the one sign that Joe isn’t dead.

 

–Tom Riley