Off the Candyland Grid

mirroring monkey

aping empathy

hides inside promises

that are all empty 

perfunctory smile

fake performative

on display for show

in guest room you live

hard metallic truth

in poison candy 

arranged on your plate

and served up for tea

Classic demise of 

Hansel and Gretel

in sugarplum dungeon

rainbow sprinkle hell

lead up garden path

discovered too late 

hollow pie crust house

the witches await

fairytale ending

without the happy 

no ever after 

lived happily

can't begin again

what is done is done 

can't go back to Oz

yellow brick square one

But I can bypass

pit stops and false starts 

quit Candyland game

playing assigned parts

find a new gameboard

or fresh place to play

without snakes and chutes

go another way

I shall call this route

of footprintless ways

not paved nor mapped 

can't see if it strays 

But there never was

a path through our wood

just stumble traipsing 

as walks with Opi should

maram grass meander 

down memory mile 

chatting as we went

as time ceased awhile 

 

 

Washed up on the melting clock tongue beach

on melting clock tongue beach

the surrealist reality

thought bubble jellyfish wash up

in persistence of memory 

diminishing return law

adding just takes away more

cram-packed memoir cupboard 

comes crashing down on the floor 

life in patchwork quilt squares

no intelligent design 

other people's leftover scraps 

not sure which bits were mine

I think I recognize this 

taffeta from pink prom dress 

baby blue flannel blanket 

but the rest is just a mess 

arrayed for punters to buy

her jumble sale of debris 

on rickety legged table 

treasures sold for a penny 

and the memories still play 

in elevator music morse code 

locked in test pattern TV

reaping tares I never sowed 

in watchtower frozen time

inner wrist watch marks the date

as the eons tick-tock by 

life's flotsam fragments stagnate

I am more than fragments 

of mirror cracked side to side

only in sharp edges recall

surreality where I reside 

Goodbye Yellow Brick Wall

that yellow brick road

where we were all told 

would lead us home was

party line they sold 

Hello yellow brick

you're no road at all 

apartheid wasteland

behind the blonde wall 

walled off courtyard

in palaces of pain

regent malignant 

with iron-fist reign

put on pedestal

so easy to fall off 

a stoning target  

to jeer at and scoff 

Quasimodo wheeled

out to foolish japes

a Motley princess 

for cavorting apes 

funny how I thought

this poem would stay

in the sunshine state 

guess it needs its say 

sick of silence sounds

my auto-gagging

tea leaves read as read

in their red-flagging 

doing this, we are

the gauntlet is thrown

by Damocles sword 

hard home truths shown

singled out scapegoat

sacrificial lamb 

golden fatted calf 

so you say I am 

well goodbye to roads

leading me back home 

going less traveled

snowy lake dune roam

My off-piste pilgrimage

I follow true north star

not all roads lead to Rome

I have sojourned so far

there's houses and home

with nowhere to dwell

I shall pioneer paths 

back to woods loved so well

Broom Smoke Hate Mail

read the ghost writing

scratched on bathroom wall

silent message shouts 

plainly heard by all 

but me.

her broom smoke hate mail 

exhaust for Oz to see 

Wicked Witch warning

go home, Dorothy!

poison pen letter

in contrail graffiti 

no misunderstanding

blunt soliloquy

can't miss signet ring

in slammed shut wax seal 

eviction notice 

homelessness is real 

my own seagull note cards 

returned to sender me 

in violent rainbow ink 

scrawled out bitter irony 

burnt tailpipe scratches 

mar chaste silver chrome

of house numbers where

I once called home

finger pointed exit

scarecrow can't decide

how to get us back

nor where I reside 

floating to Kansas

suppose we could be

we might also be

blowing out to sea

pretty metaphors 

cannot terror hide 

balloon cut asunder

to drift rogue and wide 

past all illusion

patchwork family

where broken window

isn't just a theory

Oz was gaslighting

would-be wizard lied

behind iron curtain 

hypocrisy to hide

two-side feather quill

pens divorce decree

with binding contract 

written just for me

double edge sword cuts

their responsibility 

while also severing 

my autonomy 

this rhyme is over 

but it never ends

gift keeps on giving 

in the pain it sends 

chancel tracery 

Greek Chorus Line

A Greek chorus line 

puppets dance can-cans

bloomer showing skirts 

high-kicking with fans 

Follies in burlesque

grinding fine the grain 

underneath red mill 

Moulin Rouge refrain

where music is hot

dancers are stone dead

called for another to

the queen off her head 

tragedies wailing 

upon the trombone 

Jazz funeral mass

Daddy, take it home

take us all back to

homeland security

behind picket fences 

for our pickle tea

wanna lay me down

beside Zuiderzee 

hemlock needle fleece 

cocooned around me 

no more I love yous

sacchrine sweet nothings

quicksand promises  

attached with no strings

oh give me that home

so long longed for 

beyond welcome sign 

inside the slammed door 

won't you dream weave me 

back to my Omi 

Plenty-scented table 

with a seat for me 

her hobbit windmill 

wafts Boston brown bread 

cedar closeted 

with a trundle bed 

I don't want to dance 

cake walks to the grave 

ceaseless requiem

beneath undertow wave 

let's ride the Time Warp

in three quarter time  

dance monkey sock hop

to a lake dune rhyme

Pink Rain Boot Cinderella

Wind like the paperboy 

walking past a cemetery 

whistling through its teeth

in minor flats off key 

quicksilver raindrops

embracing gently 

coming down in chains

of chased filigree

a Greek chorus-line 

tragedy to sing 

to thunderbolt reverb

and zig-zag lightning

Jackson Pollock storm 

spatter works of art

using tree debris 

for balloon and dart

nature decoupage

wet leaf applique 

red, orange and yellow

deciduous bouquet

Typewriter hailstones

pelt fusillade spray

like shooting gallery 

lead BBs ricochet

Rattle clacking refuse

playing pick-up sticks

on wrought iron bars

rat-a-tat of clicks

ornate lioned gate 

along the sidewalk

decorated in 

child's scrawls of chalk

fencing in ruins of

decayed yesterday 

no one to scold us

they've all gone away

in peum-peum zwings 

ring Seussian knells

with the big brass band 

on Jing-Tingler bells 

wet through gym shoes

surprised by the rain 

never mind the weather 

come and play again

This time I won't forget 

shall fetch umbrella 

to shelter my pink

rain boot Cinderella 

don't wait for another

snap up every chance 

reach out with both hands

May I have this dance? 

waltzing like there's no tomorrow

for it may never be

hopped the dragon boat

rode us down to Honeah Lee

let us like the storm

enjoy our heyday 

far too quickly we

too shall pass away

So come rack and ruin

come the mourning bell

with elements laughing 

in child joy we dwell

 to all my dear grandchildren Silas, Moses, Lola, Lucian, Henry, Milo, Juno, Ezra, Emmett, Remus, Flora, Maxie and Cash, who don't mind soggy shoes and rain on their face. Dance like there's no tomorrow. Love Omi 

Sing a Sangfroid Lullaby

It's crying out today

Won't you pretty please play?

in mercury rain

of glittering gray

I tell the children

mum won't go away

dad's not gone for good

they'll come back to stay

where did I find this

sangfroid surety

for mine always left 

Lonely little me

My chicks deserve peace 

so I do not tell 

of hopes dashed against 

sides of wishing well 

laughingly we play

in quicksilver gloam

then tuck you up tight

safe within your home 

a purple blanket

woven of twilight

God rest you, dearest 

in the balm of night

then comes the goddess

from the land of dawn 

sending sun to bed

as stars stretch and yawn

celestial sailor 

ferries you to sleep 

dropping dream petals  

velvet slumber keep 

wakens as she goes

lemon cheesecake moon

I will hover near 

with the dish and spoon

then cutlery and I

will hum a wee tune

cat sings lullaby 

his meowry croon 

when all is settled

in kitten curled nest 

only then will I

close my eyes to rest 

with dusky mist whisps 

then I shall wrap me

cuddle closeted 

in cedar mem'ry 

with love to the cedar closet in the den of the grama-grampa house on Crestwood Lane.