the ribbon

as i was walking down the lane i met a man from peru and a lady from spain they accosted me in a civilized manner and asked me what was inscribed on my banner i wore a ribbon across my chest upholding the measures i thought best to improve the values of civilization in every human tribe and nation your sentiments do you credit, sir the man from peru with a smile averred do you find they meet with wide approval? my name by the way, is conrad duval mime is john smith, i replied my knowledge of the world is wide with it now succinctly distilled my destiny is fulfilled that destiny is to spread the truth to the living and the dead to solace those who endlessly weep and awaken those who endlessly sleep those who find me naively mystical and perhaps a bit egotistical may be assured i will never rest and will always do my best i awoke to a cold dawn and realized my hearers were gone and the man from peru and the lady from spain were only the wind and the rain

on a summer day

as i was dozing peacefully on a lazy summer day st peter pulled up in a pumpkin and asked me to cleveland the way i do not know about cleveland i answered with a shrug chicago is just down the road apiece but is filled with ugly mugs i know nothing about chicago the saint cried with alarm but i must find lawyer jefferson because pa has sold the farm pa has sold the farm, he repeated and a tear fell from his eye where st augustine and i were lads in the sweet bye and bye that is unfortunate, i told him and managed not to grin but such things happen every day in this fallen world of sin i wish i had a drink, he sighed of whiskey, beer, or gin his white beard waved as he pulled away and i never saw him again

every day is the end

you may not like it but it’s true i am a person just like you i am the greatest of all time so please throw me a lousy dime i vowed to conquer like alexander but my dreams were so much grander i had one mission from my birth and that was to bring peace on earth at first my path was rough and stormy nobody had any time for me no one cared what i had to say and went on their merry way but i perservered i grew a long black beard my eyes flashed fire and ice and i stopped playing nice where to begin? the world was filled with sin eyes were glazed, and hearts were cold armageddon had grown old i would sand on the corner and shout but the street tuned me out my feet got flat and my beard got gray and not a passerby looked my way i sat in my little room and decided to change my tune of all men i would be least and preach forgiveness and peace i stopped speaking and held a sign simply announcing the end of time i lost my menacing frown my blood pressure went down the present future and past were none of them built to last wanderer, take note we are all sinking in the same boat you may mot like it but it’s true i am a dreamer just like you if you pass me by some time throw me a lousy dime

sages

an endless chain of sages stretches through the ages what they say again and again is written on the head of a pin but it is a big pin so you can not win If you say it is simple, you are fated to be told it is complicated if you ask for the ugly details they will not fail to laugh because you can not see the beautiful simplicity if you say you are, you are if you say you are not, you are i guess you just are are you with me so far? i am glad you have seen the light so sit tight the sage will see you by and by and tell you everything you know is a lie

the mountain and the monkey

once there was a mountain that never went anywhere a monkey often passed it by and sometimes stopped and stared why do you look at me so rude the mountain would complain though you laugh and point your finger you will never feel my pain i am only a monkey the monkey said with a straight face i see you are a mighty mountain and have put me in my proper place i do not like your attitude and suspect sarcasm in it a tear trickled the mountain’s face an awkward silence lasted a minute very well, the monkey said if you are not satisfied i suggest you crawl under the wide blue sky or otherwise run and hide with that the monkey took his leave and frolicked across the earth the mountain stayed right where he was because he was cursed from birth

old johnson

i was standing on the corner when i heard my bulldog bark i turned and saw old johnson he was standing in the dark me and him went back a ways with nothing good between us him and his buddy jackson rode me like a couple of hyenas what had i done to him lately to make him look so foul suddenly he stepped from the alley with a most menacing scowl who are you and your bulldog he asked with a slippery smile to invade my territory with your simpering whimpering guile >I do not know your uncle I ianswered with a frown but I have every right to see the show when i choose to come to town be that as it may, he smirked but the cards have all been dealt and you may be astonished when they are turned up on the felt i scorned his imputations and whistled for my dog but long will i remember what emerged then from the fog oh you who walk the cobbled streets and lounge in doorways dim beware of old man johnson beware , beware of him! there are those who deal with devils or pray to angels bright but beware of those like johnson who shine their shoes at night the fog swirled all around me as he faded from my view but i would not bake his biscuits and neither, i think, should you

waiting for the light to turn green

the great void spins and spins and spins and spins who shall say where the void ends and where it begins? i had more than enough to drink and before i had time to think i accosted a stranger in the street but he pushed me aside without missing a beat the question of the void is easy to avoid if you really put your mind to it you can get through it >that is what i wanted to say but the stranger went on his way with my words unappreciated because they had never been stated how many strangers have you pushed aside as you wander through this world so wide they might have given you food for thought then again, maybe not i am waiting for the light to turn green it’s the loneliest light i have ever seen the walls of the steeet close in maybe i will go for a swim

no bail

the mayor would not go my bail so i am here to tell my tale and will not let it rest until i have done my best roses are red, elephants are gray everybody should have their say flowers bloom in howling blizzards human beings are all really lizards violets are blue, champagne is bubbly old philosophers faces are stubbly if you never learn to stay out of the rain you will get wet, again and again grass is green, hay is yellow my old dog sam was a jolly good fellow he scratched the surface of the earth and played the fool for all he was worth noses are purple, mud is brown every time i go to town folks gather round and call me names but my mama loved me all the same old man mose is mighty rich he carries an old curved hickory switch the devil gave him as a gift when mose stopped one night and gave him a lift just a feller walking down the road with a cat, a rattlesnake, and a toad the rain was falling, the sky was dark and he had to find noah’s ark someone must give us all a ride or we will be fit to be tied to the tree from which old mother eve picked an apple, i do believe such is the substance of my verse stranger, i ask you, which is worse a man who will offer you a drink or one who always stops and thinks?

opportunity

i thought i heard sheriff john brown say this is quality stuff and he had been around a long time and knew when enough was enough and so i could not believe my ears when he commended me thus and felt as if i were struck by lightning or hit by a greyhound bus but then i looked around and to my dismay found he was talking to sad sam smith who had come in the door with all the creatures i had known in my years all alone on the mountaintop before it all came to a stop i thought i heard sam smith say as they led me away they gave him every opportunity is it our fault he didn’t want to be free? and shirley the waitress said he should have stayed in bed whenever you walk out the door the lions and the oceans roar

late at night

as the rain rattled on the roof sidney greenstreet offered proof to the officer at the station of his sincere reformation as the detective waked away rosalind russell heard him say these hoodlums before dawn will lay lifeless on the lawn cary grant had another plan it was to confront the man who had designed the whole frame and say he knew his real name but adolphe menjou would never know who made the last phone call and left the message on the wall after poor claude rains went to such pains to include the younger generation in his address to the nation

lines

all you lonely hermits dreaming of endless highways the road is empty listen to the rain and roll over and go back to sleep at the end of the road there is only another lonely room another empty shack