mellow worker mellow after work
few beers mellow mellow husband
pal (but more fervent father
to his little bird) mellow
armchair mellowness in front of
the TV mellow smile marshmallow
muscles hair of yellow floss
mellow helpful helped strungout D
shoot up in his bathroom
when she needed a fix
looks almost exactly like he
did in college, same long
straight hair and red-brown
moustache, but now more like
McGruff than then and why
not, he’s made a crusade
of fighting crime in the
most intense, successful way –
face-to-face humanity and hard
work – the ultimate pragmatic pacifist
my best friend in second
grade told me two untruths –
one, she had a dirt
collection stored in glass jars
in her closet – two, that
a plague was looming called
“the Blue Pox” – neither dirt
nor pox forthcoming, to my
vast disappointment slash relief –
it’s puzzling even now – why lie?
okay, here’s what happened: she
invites a bunch of girlfriends
over for a backyard campout
sometime in the night her
dad comes out slips his
hand oh so carefully into
the hand of sleeping girl
who wakes up startled by
his bulky hand in hers
his shadow near her head
are you a good witch
or a bad witch? she’s
a political witch, stirring, stirring,
always stirring, examining the fuming
cauldron closely, as though she
could read results there in
the steam before it blows
away, and thereby manipulate the
future with determination, woodsmoke,
spoons, and the law if necessary
most vigorous of professors, leaping
onto desks and windowsills, balding
denim-ed ringmaster with glittering eye
and attention-getting antics, he introduces
Platonic dramatics, Aristotelian peripatetics,
and Socratic acrobatics to his students’
w i d e – e y e d a w e – what is a
good life? study philosophy with
him, tame the tigers, jump
through flaming hoops, and roar
Quote Search – Find “schuldenfrei”
friendly white-haired figure with
a smile – often coming forward
with a joy, never a
concern – a force for justice
and assistance in the community
(with his evercharged and lovely
wife beside him) – keeps stories
in his vest pockets and
can quote Yeats when the
time is right for it