Time Machine In The Boondocks Of The Southern Peloponnese, 1959/2022

 

The hens that once clucked 

And cackled near the mucky 

Pigpen in the next door 

 

Neighbors’ backyard and laid 

The fresh eggs my mother fried 

For our breakfast to the tune 

 

Of the rooster that craned 

Its neck to crow before 

Laying each chicken in turn, 

 

And the once ubiquitous 

Always sad-faced 

Ass that brayed 

 

In the vacant lot just 

West of our house 

In the torrid afternoon heat, 

 

Its Priapian appendage hanging 

Limp as a wet knee-high 

From the long since departed 

 

Neighbors’ sagging clothesline, how 

Is it they all flew the coop 

And I’m still here?

 

 

 

 

 

Peaky Piecemeal Blunders

 

Loutish stumbling

 

Bum, can you remember 

The last time you thought

 

This will be the last 

 

Time you promise yourself 

To think twice before 

You forget 

 

Your lot? 

 

 

 

 

 

Displaced, Naturally

 

Years spent seamlessly waiting

On a permanent settlement,

 

In the end it seems 

We were forever 

 

Meant to live 

Out of our element. 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost There Ad Infinitum, Etcetera

The man 

 

Who says he’s never believed 

In anything so far is close 

 

To understanding what nothing is, 

Though no one there is listening. 

 

 

 

 

Gravity For Dummies

Strange man 

That he was, 

 

Newton saw 

An apple drop 

 

From a tree, 

And being much 

 

Possessed 

 

By second nature, 

Thought it was indeed 

 

Something out of the ordinary. 

Up till then, no one had ever 

 

Given it second thought— 

We know better now; 

 

The rest is old-hat, or is it 

All as simple as that?