Libby Weber's Blog, page 28

May 16: Burning

The grass parched by unseasonable heat

Though irrigated regularly, browns.

The howling Santa Ana winds deplete

The soil of moisture, leaving dusty mounds.

The populace sits on a tinderbox,

Collective breaths held for the winds to change

Thus sparing homes in residential blocks

And shifting the evacuation range.

Cooperation’s been unprecedented

Between the numerous fire agencies,

And yet the grumbling of the discontented

Betrays the city’s overall unease:

If spring brings conflagrations uncontrolled,

What...

May 15: For Pop on his Sixty-Ninth Birthday

The ERHS class of ‘sixty-three

Espoused the phrase, “Make it to sixty-nine!”

And while they might have meant it vulgarly,

It also had a meaning less benign.

For some of them went off to fight a war

In which the country had a dubious stake,

To perish on antipodean shores,

For what was a political mistake.

But those who made it through each of fate’s brushes

Need not recall which sixty-nine’s the truth,

Within a dripping woodland flush with thrushes,

While laughing at at vagaries of youth.

There are few me...

May 14: Revised Expectations

A woman who is looking to dispense

With part-time jobs in lieu of one that pays

Commensurate with her experience,

Has got an interview in several days.

Her research shows they have contracts galore

Despite the fact the company’s quite young;

She’s done good work with some of them before-

She hopes to make it past their lowest rung.

The interview goes well, but at the end,

They cannot offer salaried employment-

Instead, they generously condescend

To offer unpaid work for her enjoyment.

An engineer would t...

May 13: Little Lamb

“Of all the dogs,” declared our neighbor’s son,

While patting my Giovanni’s scruffy head,

“Who live near us, Kylie’s my number one.”

I’ve not the heart to tell him that she’s dead;

How callous metastasis can devour

Those least deserving of that awful plight,

How miserable to watch its awful power

Destroy a creature made of joy and light,

Or how the loss of a beloved pet

Can shatter elders’ fragile status quo.

Perhaps it is a blessing to forget

The reasons it is exigent to go.

I told the boy she moved to...

May 12: Buzz Buzz Buzz

I speak in breathlessness at breakneck speed,

My thoughts are rushing with greater rapidity.

Exuberant I am, but now exceed

My normal levels nearly to vapidity.

But this great joy and feeling of inclusion

Is rare enough that I elect to relish

The giddiness, and should it prove delusion,

The memory will be one I embellish:

“Did I tell you about the awesome time

That I remained, just chatting for an hour,

After auditioning- it was sublime

And I showed off my vocal superpower!”

And even if they do not let m...

May 11: Mum’s the Word

Despite the fact that first she had my brother,

First born, first son, and something of a test,

She then decided to create another,

And for this bravery she was twice blessed-

First with a blonde-haired infant who appeared

Angelic, but to mischief was apprenticed,

And followed by a lass justly revered,

Whose cleverness and talent was portentous.

Three children who now span the country wide

Whose paths are different, yet display the same

Self-confidence that wouldn’t be denied,

And wouldn’t be dissuaded...

May 10: For CAH

For years we two have traded birthday verse

Since rhyme and scansion are two skills we share,

And while our challenges may seem perverse,

I like to think we pull them off with flair.

In Limerick, haiku, and even sonnet,

Such subjects as the swift passage of time

Will be thrown down, we each will muse upon it,

And offer up a piece in tortured rhyme.

Of course, each work is rife with references

To college days and mischief that we made,

Like stacks of magazines edging sax cases

(A quandary that Jeff and I...

May 9: Sea Shark Major

You might think that the several rows of teeth

And lack of fingers might prevent a shark

From being musical, but underneath

The water, you will find you’re off the mark.

Chondrichthyans, you see, can really swing,

And all the ectothermic dig cool jazz;

While megamouths’ ambtion is to sing,

The swell shark’s bongos add assured pizzazz.

But if a shark shows up to play your gig

Be sure to give respect as it is due

Remember that great whites are not just big,

They take artistic pride in what they do.

And if...

May 8: Fishing

Franz Schubert wrote a lovely little lied

About a fish who frolicked, scales agleam

Until an angler’s gimmick did succeed,

In hooking it by muddying the stream.

Sometimes, I’m like that playful little fish

Anticipating anglers’ every whim,

But other times, perspective’s what I wish,

To keep the world from seeming quite so grim.

So I enjoy my bright, clean tank by day

And venture into riverbeds at night.

Though I’ve not tired of living thus halfway,

I know, deep in my heart, that I just might.

It’s sad to...

May 7: Woodshedding

When I first heard the phrase “to woodshed,” in

The context of rehearsal, I inferred

That it meant chipping at a score, therein

Discovering the sounds that should be heard,

Such as an ancient master might have done

To find the form inside a marble block,

And though painstaking work is rarely fun,

To get it right’s a satisfying shock.

But no, the phrase supposedly derives

From banishing musicians to the shed

Where of amenities they are deprived,

But they may practice, uninhibited.

Regardless of whose defi...