|
|
|
|
Best Poems From
LAURENCE OVERMIRE
|
|
| |
|
|
365.
|
Seven Set Free, Jan.28,1986 (A Tribute to the Space Shuttle Challenger)
What was it
That mocked sweet sleep
A message from beyond
Understanding
Some doom
Portended
In the mist of a dream
No heed taken
Challenger
Daring courier to the impregnable Dark
Blazing heavenward
Bold and confident
To touch the stars
Who saw the finger
Deaths black-gloved hand
Slip to the trigger
And pull
Seven helpless victims
Through the fires of hell?
Peer in dumb silence
Mortals below
Through clearing smoke
Falling debris
Your eyes cannot see
Seven set free
Soaring still to the great unknown
They challenge us all.
Take heed
And listen
Sounds in the night
Speak truths in the light
While the riddles of life
Unanswered
Remain.
Laurence Overmire
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
366.
|
Shakespeare's Goof
'The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers'. William Shakespeare (Henry VI, Act IV, Scene II) .
Shakespeare was being nice when he said,
Kill all the lawyers.
Killing them is much too kind.
No.
Justice must be served.
An eye for an eye.
We must devise a form of punishment equivalent to the torment to
Which they have subjected all mankind.
Therefore, I propose
We line them all up against a wall
And make them read the entire tax code from end to end.
And well charge them $200 for every hour it takes.
Those who survive this ordeal
Will be placed in a room full of angry citizens who have lost their entire
Life savings to frivolous lawsuits.
(As special dispensation, the aggrieved shall be at liberty to give personal injury attorneys genuine cases of whiplash.)
Should any lawyers still be kicking at the conclusion of these festivities
A large unmarked waste receptacle will be conveniently placed on the Mall in Washington D.C.
Where they will be ceremoniously buried in mounds of their own bull hockey,
A fitting memorial
To future generations of freedom loving men (and women)
Who seek to avoid the errors of the past.
(Previously published in The Inditer, March 2000)
Laurence Overmire
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
367.
|
She walks in sadness (haiku)
She walks in sadness
plucking petals from a flow'r
dreams dropped on the ground
(Previously published in Borders and Time, Mar 2000)
Laurence Overmire
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
368.
|
Shooting Ducks
The thing had no specific
Identifiable features by any known
Quantifiable standard or norm
Yet
They put a nice disparaging
Label
On it
To measure and
Distinguish their considerable
Contempt for what they
Imagined
To be true.
(Previously published in Subtle Tea, Oct 2003)
Laurence Overmire
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|