059.365 - quatrain 59.2017 Carthage

he stirred the flames and stirred his tea
and sipped and stared and said to me
the destruction I see drags on decades
and nothing repairs, the ruins just fade

058.365 - quatrain 58.2017 Jude

one day when Thumper and Bambi and Fleur
traveled across Old Fox's moor
they got caught in a bramble so wide and sure
that even Old Fox called it the Obscure

057.365 - quatrain 57.2017 a-Viking

when I went a-Viking, oh!
I sailed the stormy sea
I never dreamed that what I'd find
would come home and rule me, oh!

056.365 - quatrain 56.2017 reticent

dawn came and looked over the world below
decided it wasn't worth it
crept back and hid and wouldn't come out
and changed history as far as we know

055.365 - quatrain 55.2017 truth be told

this is a quatrain I wrote for you
on St. Swivern's day so you know it's true
'cause I wouldn't dare  tell a lie or three
that might come back to haunt us, you and me

054.365 - quatrain 54,2017 coalescing

when in the course of human events
it's time for pie of almonds and mints
and maybe just a touch of quince
all brought together to heal our rents

053.365 - quatrain 53.2017 silence

the brothers closed a camaraderie
that wound up protecting the ones who strayed
from the paths of goodness and the glow of well-meaning
but they only hid evidence of murder, embezzlement, and rape

052.365 - quatrain 52.2017 spirits

they told us fix our bayonets, they said prepare to charge
but that was near four hours ago, something must have gone wrong
I do not argue with majorettes, I do not argue with Sarge
but lord I wish someone would come and lift us with a song

051.365 - quatrain 51.2017 mixing

the preacher tells us stories
and so does Sunday school
but both sound just like Tories
and now the Whigs rule

050.365 - quatrain 50.2017 here am I

if this is the sound that a quatrain needs
then here am I to provide it
and there are you, bless your hearts for your speeds
with ears to collect and divide it

049.365 - quatrain 49.2017 age

I wonder if it's really true
that once I didn't hurt
every time I tell a story
there's a fall, a break, or some other glory

048.365 - quatrain 48.2017 relief

after five years of drought
long enough for us to forget how to dress or drive in wet weather
the skies opened and poured all day long and all night
like we have been told they did in days of old

047.365 - quatrain 47.2017 jury education

jury duty comes from the sixth Amendment
so thank Mr. Madison and his friends
the next time you get your summons
and as you're glad for the Bill of  Rights, make your amends

046.363 - quatrain 46.2017 small ship

the little pirate ship, barely a foot long
breezed slowly into the cove where I swam
I could hear no chasing squeals, so I waited, admiring
surely no one abandoned this much care and attention

045.365 - quatrain 45.2017 the meaning of home

oh my mother, oh my pa
I had no business out here
but once they marched me out so fa'
my whole business was to get outa here

044.365 - quatrain 44.2017 creating the gods we need

night
new mountains scrape the sky
and even claw at starlight
people watching invent gods who fight

043.365 - quatrain 43.2017 like Flint

Mother and Mary and Sister and Sue
didn't know what in the world to do
banker had poisoned the city water supply
so the rest of us only could die

042.365 - quatrain 42.2017 contributions

if I could, I'd give this pain
away in dribs and drabs
one to an already dying tree
and to a stone maybe two or three

041.365 - quatrain 41.2017 lost loves

where in the world did my family move?
or was it me who left them?
why can't I remember what happened, love?
and why do I feel so bereft of them?

040.365 - quatrain 40.2017 winter is coming

at first it came down in flakes
that vanished wherever they touched down
but now they pour down thicker than air
and their chill threatens our heat to drown

039.365 - quatrain 39.2017 oddities

sometimes a quatrain is really a couplet
with infernally long lines broke in two
sometimes what the president wants
takes forever to say just so

038.365 - quatrain 38.2017 different

this is a different quatrain
this one is not like the first
this is a separate quatrain
and maybe it is the worst

037.365 - quatrain 37.2017 complications

life was simpler back in my day
the mother told her teenager
do you already know how to use one of these?
and gave her a tooth filled with cyanide

036.365 - quatrain 36.2017 the cost of making believe

latvia, estonia, and langendorf
and andalusitania sublime
sound like places in make-believe
but have cost us thousands of lives

035.365 - quatrain 35.2017 rewards

out in the tulies of Alpha Centaur
teenagers never explore
the outer fringes of what they can do
and explode when they turn twenty-four

034.365 - quatrain 34.2017 cloud science

whither, whether, wither, weather
how do the clouds know
to puff up or not, to tower or not,
and where in the world to go?

033.365 - quatrain 33.2017 maybe a future

there must be something to celebrate
these days while the Republic falls
maybe that youth to youth still calls
as if maybe this was time to mate

032.365 - quatrain 32.2017 unstained

some people hope the coup leaves a stain
on streets, stairs, walls, and door-splinters
but Argentina and Chile cleaned up quite well
no one could tell after a couple of winters