SLEEP
Tumbling over and over and over
Down the flowing meadow,
Tumbling down the hill, down the hill.
Falling asleep goes the same way
Tumbling down down down
Into sleep
Waking up up up into dreams
**********
THE DRUG TESTED DOG
I’m trying to look you in the eye
And beg you please, don’t make me die
Because someone wants to know if what they try
Will make them ill or make them high
Please take off the tubes that are poisoning me
With stuff I’d never eat or drink intentionally
Oh stop the suffocating smoke
That stings my eyes and makes me choke
I know you know I’m suffering
I’m just an animal with no rights
A convenient thing to experiment on
There’ll be plenty more when I’m gone
All because some humans (in-humanes)
Can make legitimate drug money from my pain
I know you know I’m dying here
And I also know that you don’t care
**********
THE SOLITARY TREE
I turned my back on the solitary tree.
I was part of this, I roared with all the rest.
I was there when they grabbed him
Shoving the rough, stinking blanket over his head.
When he was dragged, his feet scrabbling in the mud.
As he was pulled and twisted along the dirt track
To the hanging tree.
It was me who put the noose around his neck.
I tightened it and watched his face contort as I sneered at him.
What had he done, this man who offended us?
Very little, if anything;
But it was enough to die for.
His skin wasn’t white, and that was enough for us.
It took four of us to hoist him up.
Frantic, writhing;
But he was tied, legs, arms, and a noose around his neck.
Nothing we could or would do.
But watch.
Some clapped and cheered, some laughed and jeered.
Me? I turned my back on the solitary tree.
**********
DEAR DILYS
Dear Dilys,
The pills are for Willis
Because he’s infected
With Syph-ilis
Furthermore,
I wish to explore
How a bug so proactive
When once it’s contracted
As a result of seduction
It’s means of production
By spirochetel’d ructions
Make Willis feel yuk
When all he had was a f+++!
**********