Today I am taking a stroll down memory lane. I took one class on poetry during my extended college routine. I was taken with an urge to look up some of my attempts. None of them really qualifies as literature. I can never claim to be a poet. I do, however, still feel some of them express my feelings. The first one is especially apropos in today’s world. It is very dark, written at a time when I was travelling 90 miles each way to school on an almost daily basis.
American Cocoon
The world is at war, but I am at peace.
My cocoon lets me ignore the bombs as they fall on the guilty and the innocent alike,
in other places,
because all of my children are safe.
I drive along the highway, and I am at peace in my traveling cocoon.
When the radio announcer mentions mass shootings too close to home,
I just hit the black button and music floods the car as I pull the security blanket of ignorance
over my head and travel on in apathetic bliss.
When traffic backs up ahead, I expect construction, not destruction.
No checkpoints, no armed guards.
The only blood on my road is from careless or loaded people,
not a loaded car bomb or IED.
I am insulated.
Wrapped in my cocoon of complacency.
Just one geeky berserker away from the final cataclysm.
As I read through all of the offerings, I was struck by the fact that all of them have a darkness. I’m surprised that no one called me on it at the time. My second offering here is the only one that doesn’t have a flavor of despair.
Music Is a Gas
Jazz helps to sooth my nerves and lets me sleep.
The Blues stir something, deep inside my soul.
Nothing moves me more than a horn, wailing that long tenor note.
Willie and his pals lament my sadness,
the lost loves of youth cried away the night with longing and pain,
but Denver and Cash have called me home again.
Mozart and Verdi boost concentration,
when work is my goal. Bach and Beethoven focus my thinking
with orchestration of all kinds of strings.
Rock music digs deep as it speeds the blood, burns away anger
and builds up passion, burning calories.
How the beats fill me. Music fuels my life.