Epigram

Stand close around, ye Stygian set,
With Dirce in one boat conveyed!
Or Charon, seeing, may forget
That he is old and she a shade.

APPROACH LIFE AS IF IT WERE A BANQUET

Your rightful portion averts your ireful potion:
Caress what can’ t be blessed, cup shadows under breasts.

Let pass what’ s out of   ken: lover, job, riches,
a ripe peach
until it reaches you.

Bring salt for your honey, lime for your grenadine.
Money’ s not your fault.

You’ re a feathered peahen
preening for marzipan men.

“Faith” is a fine invention
For Gentlemen who see!
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency!

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’ t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

I know what my heart is like
Since your love died:
It is like a hollow ledge
Holding a little pool
Left there by the tide,
A little tepid pool,
Drying inward from the edge.

The passions that we fought with and subdued
Never quite die. In some maimed serpent’ s coil
They lurk, ready to spring and vindicate
That power was once our torture and our lord.

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As ‘Slimy skin,’ or ‘Polly-wog,’
Or likewise ‘Ugly James,’
Or ‘Gape-a-grin,’ or ‘Toad-gone-wrong,’
Or ‘Billy Bandy-knees’:
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say

See here an easy feast that knows no wound,
That under hunger’ s teeth will needs be sound;
A subtle harvest of unbounded bread,
What would ye more? Here food itself is fed.