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Best Poems From
HERBERT NEHRLICH
(04 October 1943)
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1917.
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Near-Miss
A mouse, all gray with tiny ears
was crying salty rodent tears.
A cat had cornered him and planned
to eat him as he ate his aunt.
Just when the cat had opened wide
a voice was heard from the outside.
Dog Brutus, who resided near
had just decided to appear.
He barged, as he was fond of doing
inside and saw the trouble brewing.
And since he liked all little mice
he told the cat 'now you be nice'.
The cat, however, was not used
to be directed and abused.
And with the swipe of its big paw
the mouse went down into the craw.
By now, the dog was mad as hell
and things looked for the cat not well.
He gulped the cat (and thus the mouse)
and wandered off to his own house.
And as he settled down to snooze
he saw a pair of Rockford shoes
approaching from across the street
he knew it was the butcher, Pete.
The butcher was a nasty man
and always fought with brother Stan.
He carried in his hand a knife,
the dog now feared for his own life.
Now let me tell you how it ended,
the butcher, who had been offended
by the mere presence of the mutt
just stood there scratching his big gut.
That was the signal for the cat,
which in the dog's own stomach sat.
The cat responded to her master
who, instantly, sensed a disaster.
She bounced and jumped, the mouse did follow
the air was sparse inside the hollow.
And through the movement Brutus shivered
when on command his brain delivered
a burp of monumental size
and this now triggered a surprise.
The cat, (and thus the mouse as well)
exploded outward with a yell.
Thus now you know that dogs that belch
throw up (but only if they're Welsh) .
You didn't think that cat survived
inside? Of oxygen deprived?
You're right of course, but let me say
the mouse and cat inside DID pray.
And, in the end, I told my spouse,
it all came down to Mouse to mouth.
Herbert Nehrlich
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1918.
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Nectar
It seemed to soothe the wound,
old though it was, but as you know
the devil known as phantom pains
strikes hard and with impunity.
So, he decided, being one of the
remaining altruists on earth,
to stick with it, or better stick to,
as that brought sighs and great relief.
He figured, with just a tiny dash of hope,
that she might, later on, much later, turn
toward his face, so, just in case
he never ever moved.
Of course he dreams.
Of birds and bees,
and nectar,
so it seems.
Herbert Nehrlich
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1919.
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Nectar Of A Flower
When I think of those petals (ignoring the moss)
and the first dropp of DEW trickles out
she moves limbs and her flower is covered by gloss
and the lips open slightly and pout.
May I have what is yours, I have waited for years
and my tastebuds are trembling with joy
could it be that through this I would be in arrears
having been such an innocent boy?
So I nibble on her and she hums (I confess)
and she dribbles her heart into mine,
I remain in her patch and the music plays YES
and the angels just watch and drink wine.
Herbert Nehrlich
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1920.
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Need, Not Love
I can see her still,
sitting, wrapped in green,
Loden made her look so,
well substantial if you know
what I intend to say,
so many decades now
have gone like locusts,
chasing hungry thoughts,
there was so much of it,
the thing we both assumed
was real love, it had,
due to the will of God,
been slow in coming, very,
but joy was there, a bench
of weathered Northern pine,
gawked at by the majestic eyes
of two white swans, in love
a strange duality of fate,
we did, as you might guess,
the usual things, with hands,
and buttons, awkward clasps
until the tower struck the time,
she had a curfew to obey,
a tyrant would enforce his law.
Yes, it was wild and innocent,
we learned so quickly on the fly,
and guarded a great treasure then
with the tenacity of romanticism,
an era made for secrecy of youth.
When Colonel Sander swept the land,
first whiff reminded me of you,
fried chicken at the Frankfurt Zoo,
eaten without the cutlery and licked,
it's where the term of fingerlicking
could, and maybe did originate,
you later told me, in a moment of
serenity, while commandeering beds
belonging to your folks, how you had smiled
deep down, especially when cleaning up
my thumb, you'd picture what you had not seen,
and kept it to yourself until the very day.
How might she be, the thought appeared
to leave again but it returned, to bug
and tug, it would relieve the stresses of
an academic queen, a life of smoke and caffeine.
It was so easy then to re-connect, how quaint
to travel back in time and pick a rose
that had now grown above the weeds of life
and then been trampled by a pair of careless feet,
it was like having found a treasure from the past,
enriching every day and sometimes nights.
And then it happened, spending precious time
has always been your thing, you made your choice
in milliseconds, I was there and took a photograph
of you, all cap 'n gown at the cathedral in Cologne.
You changed your life my sweet, they'd done the big lavage,
no thought of mine had been left in that pretty brain,
we took that cruise, if you recall, just up the Rhine,
and you explained and cut my heart to smithereens.
Heck you were right my girl of wonderful old times,
it was not love that had survived these many years,
for only need can ever hope to make that grade,
and love for others must be doomed and sure to fade.
I raised my glass to her: 'I'll send you some new rhymes.'
And I will always do my best (though she is kind) ,
and twice a year she finds an envelope of size
inside the fruits of an old fool he calls his art,
but I am happy to have seen inside her eyes
that I can keep this girl forever in my heart.
Herbert Nehrlich
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