Recommendations

I recommend a siesta each day
I recommend a squirrel you can teach
I recommend fresh fruit
on your hat as you stroll
with your cat on the sandy white beach

I recommend a sunny guest bedroom
I recommend whipped cream on your pie
I recommend you remember
each word to your favorite song
as you fly through the sky

I recommend a week without homework
I recommend a birthday each year
I recommend you find
a rare coin as you walk
with a friend to the end of the pier

I recommend a hot dog with mustard
I recommend a strong cup of tea
I recommend a breeze
through your hair as you float
in your boat on the warm azure sea


22 April 2007

It's True

Hey you,
It’s true,
You’re stepping on my shoe
But a needle in a haystack wouldn’t know quite what to do
So I went there with my sister, but she didn’t have a clue
And now we're through,
It's true,
That’s what it’s coming to

Hey you,
It’s true,
You spilled the sticky glue
But the farmer in the dell would say he likes your new hairdo
So I traded the piano for a cow called Apple Sue
And now we're through,
it's true,
That’s what it’s coming to

Hey you,
It’s true,
There’s something in the stew
But counting all the sheep is simply not the thing to do
So I doubled every recipe to make them all come true
And now we’re through,
It's true,
That’s what it’s coming to

Hey you,
Yeah you,
It’s really, really true
We’re through
It’s true
It’s you I’m talking to


7 April 2007

Go

Go run your hand through
the pine trees, my boy
Go pour the sea through your toes
Go smell the breath of
the desert oasis
Or make a friend of a rose

Take several stars from
the nighttime sky
And let them explode in your hand
Go taste the moon before
it grows up
And then you will understand

5 March 2007

Radio Conversation

Seven Blue Dog Truth
This is Silver Shoehorn Pete
We’ve got a sixty seven on an apple pie
Three potatoes and a pound of meat
We’re gonna need you to joker your fiddle
Get your big cookie out over the soap
Call us back if you get a rare pickle
Tied up into your kitchen rope

Silver Shoehorn Pete
This is Seven Blue Dog Truth
I read you on the apple pie
We’re over at the car bird booth
We’ll use a kilo of the birdy gear
To round up all the six and seven
Check back in at cold tomato
Half past a peacock to eleven

Seven Blue Dog Truth
This is Silver Shoehorn Pete
Thanks. We read you like a drumstick
Over, out, and dirty seat

3 March 2007

Your Colors

All of your colors are up to you
No one can make your green or your blue
If your orange looks more like your red
You must work it all out in your head

All of your colors are up to you
Purple and white, yellow and blue
You must choose how each one will look
You won’t find the answers in any old book

Don’t ask your friends to help you out
They don’t know what your colors are about
You have to put each one in its place
Just there on the wall or all over your face

All of your colors are up to you
Maybe your green will become your blue
Maybe your black will just fly away
Maybe your blue will become your gray

You are in charge of the colors you’ve got
So throw them all, if you like, in a pot
Stir them all up into one lovely brown
And paint everything all over your town

3 March 2007

The Nanny and Someone Else

Oh the butler wakes the castle up
by banging pots and pans
And the cook makes all the curtains
with her swift and bony hands
But the nanny didn’t notice
when the princess ripped her dress
She was down upon the floor a-cleaning
someone else’s mess

Oh the cobbler plays the fiddle
or he doesn’t play at all
And the gardener dances as he plants
the daisies for the ball
But the nanny wasn’t watching
when the prince fell off his chair
She was tying purple ribbons up
in someone else’s hair

Oh the knight in shining armor cries
whenever he is sad
And the pageboy picks his nose
which makes the blacksmith really mad
But the nanny wasn’t looking
when the kitten drank the cream
She was staring out the window
lost in someone else’s dream

14 Dec. 2006

Twenty

One’s a story
Twos are three
Four is boring
Five is free
Six is cake and Seven’s hungry
Eight ate through the parlor door
Nine is not some lonely nothing
No, it’s much much very more

Ten’s a treasure
Eleven sits
Wearing Nine’s old oven mitts
Twelve is late
But Thirteen’s here
And fourteen brings us Easter cheer

Fifteen’s jealous of Eleven
Sixteen stole Four’s tasty bread
Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, and Twenty
Went and slept in Seven’s bed

24 July 2006

Half Your Lollipop

In days of long forgotten lore
I felt your gravy on my door
When once we scrambled down the shore
And blue was still the color green
And you were all my starry queen
And had we plenty doing for

I placed a boat upon your sea
You dusted off the toast from me
So we sat down to sip our tea
And you were cake upon my table
And when I wasn’t you were able
And many had us doing be

You worked until the night was done
Like silver from a rubber gun
You kissed the moon which shamed the sun
And peaches grew out of your ears
And all we felt from all the years
And happy said was other fun

So now I place it in my hand
Inventions I can understand
But answers I will not demand
And spinning round and round and stop
And I was half your lollipop
And where was had of all the land

23 January 2007

A Porridge of It

What is it that you think of me?
A mighty lonesome cup of tea
But I remember what I see
And make a porridge of it

For there in wonderment it glows
Mysterious for what it knows
And if it gets to where it goes
We’ll make a porridge of it

But by the time you have this dream
I’ll not be true to what I seem
So don’t forget to add the cream
And make a porridge of it

But back then when we made our pact
I said that it was truest fact
But you weren’t quick enough to act
And make a porridge of it

So now it sits upon that hill
Amidst the winter’s icy chill
But if by summer it’s there still
We’ll make a porridge of it


17 January 2007

See You Later, Fred

Up the lazy tree trunk where the lunch pail grows
In the room of ribbons where the ice cream glows
Round and round the river
Down and down some more
Twice behind the toy box where the donkey shows

Two between the buses on the avenue
Into every igloo with the engine glue
Through the empty tunnel
To the deck of cards
Since the time when you and I were at the zoo

Once for all the ladies of the melting block
Right beside the fishing pole and flying clock
Three for each tomato
By the time I write
With a golden axe upon the silver sock

Under phones and over every water spout
All for every time and even in or out
Sideways to the middle
Up and up again
When he knows exactly what to think about

You must wear your stockings
You must wear your stockings
You must wear your stockings
So, see you later, Fred.

15 October 2006

Once and only once, my

Once and only once, my shiny friend,
Is what holds the truth to me or you,
There was never more from start to end
When I saw you ever in the blue,

Twice and only twice, my ringing mate,
There was quite enough from you to me,
When you loved and loved enough to wait,
I had ever touched eternity,

Thrice and only thrice when time was young,
Closer to the home of every king,
All the songs that no one else has sung,
Under all the other stars that sing,

Take it all at once as now you see,
Hope and all the sounds of victory.


13 September 2006

Fire by Day

Pokin’ me, pokin’ me,
You have awoken me
But now you must let go
Because you’re a-chokin’ me

It doesn’t feel good
To sit in your ribcage
Staring out at a world
Full of axle grease
I need a mother
Who enters the boxing ring
Thinking of pharaohs
And counting each piece

Pokin’ me, pokin’ me,
You have awoken me
But now you must let go
Because you’re a-chokin’ me

Knowing just how to
Tighten a razor blade
Mash up scrap metal
Or lasso a mouse
Makes me feel giddy
As a pedestrian
Like I could just up
And swallow a house…

Pokin’ me, pokin’ me,
You have awoken me
But now you must let go
Because you’re a-chokin’ me

Fire by day and
Pillar by moonlight
You lead me on into
Dreams of new land
I walk in circles
So tired of whistling
Thinking of paintings
I don’t understand

Pokin’ me, pokin’ me,
You have awoken me
But now you must let go
Because you’re a-chokin’ me


11 October 2006

What Mr. Puddle Didn’t Know

Mr. Puddle left his house just after four
Looking for a friend, a tick he’d met before
Lately he’d been thinking
As we sometimes do
Tableware was clinking
The side of his canoe
What he didn’t know was how to open up the door

Buses swayed like jelly up and down the street
Puddle knew the firemen would soon retreat
Then he saw a thingy
Something caught his eye
Seeing it was stringy
He made no reply
What he didn’t know was how to keep a steady beat

Later in the changing room without a hook
Mr. Puddle acted like he’d read the book
Tick was privy to it
That is all we know
Someone had to do it
Puddle let it go
What he didn’t know was just how long the whole thing took

Just before his bedtime in the dining car
Tick procured a broom from just behind the bar
Swept it all up sweetly
From the dirty floor
Stacked the teacups neatly
“What’d you do that for?”
What he didn’t know was that they hadn’t gone that far

After Mr. Puddle and his friend the tick
Heard the screaming babies they performed the trick
When the music started
Someone blew the fuse
Everyone departed
Such depressing news
What he didn’t know was how to shake a fairy stick

That is why this story has a moral too
Every tale should have one even if it’s true
Never take a pigeon
To a matinee
Not even a smidgeon
Not the other way
Mr. Puddle’s sorry that he never really knew


15 October 2006