Cletus And His Bottle

Dead drunk, his bottle

Tucked in his right armpit

Cletus rose turbulently, swaying

Dangling like a kite

Caught in the boughs of a tree;

Squinting in the even blaze, he

Let out a mighty belch. 

        Three wobbled steps; an abrupt stop!

        With forehead creased in a gaze

        He appraised the expanse ahead

        Recalling but one path

        By which he’d come half a day earlier.

        Now, everything was different.

        The bottle, drawn from its loft and

        Tipped for a swig, cleared the fog.

"He would not sow who observes the wind"

The journey home Cletus must make

Of the self-multiplying routes

Only one may be trusted.

With a silly smile

He tossed forward

But into the ditch he dropped

His bottled companion in tow

To wait in slumber for the rude tap

Of the sun’s sliver the next morn.

EPITAPH: To Love

Here lies Miss Lateen
Who came in at nineteen
At such a young age
On account of Tom’s rage.

She was his ere Tom’s chum
Stole her heart from Tom
Tom, moved by Love to save
Hid her in this grave.

Love is bitter-sweet
Hate, a willing help-meet
Though of common root
One the other must loot.

             THE SKY

The sky, youthful
At dawn, just before sunrise
The aged moon recedes in demise
While the day and the living arise

The sky, placid
Calm and lavishly tranquil
Casting warmth over the globe until
The hearts of earthlings with pleasure fill

The sky, mottled
Splotched with grey-white cotton balls
Positioned in the heavenly walls
Like works of art on gallery halls     
  
The sky, alive
With phantoms in ones and groups
And dismembered beings in gaily troops
Conferring and balancing like troupes

The sky, glaring
The sun as a fiery hearth
Glowers intensely at the lame earth
Yet makes food for man even in dearth

The sky, cloudy
Dark patches lining the west;
With age-old thunderbolt at its best
Pours rain till the rumblings come to rest

The sky, golden
The even sun crowns the day
Shaping twilight shadows long and gay
While clucking chickens soon roost or lay

The sky, star-full    
With countless sparkles it teems
Occupying the heavens with beams
Visiting from outer space it seems

The sky, starless
The moon is hiding indoors
Just as spookiness, like a knot, moors
A child, wide-eyed, with fright to the floors