Free Verse

This verse is freer than I am.
It can rhyme if I take the time,
or alliterate a little--or a lot.
Even tetrametric trochees;
fun to read (if soporific!)
And we can imagine whatever we want--
let's rest under a tree
and pop open a Belgian beer
on a planet of TRAPPIST-1!--
while on Earth we shelter in place.

Lockdown Limerick

A trip to the movies can be tonic
to life's stress. But it's ironic
  (though I'm no cinéaste
  or snob) that our last
  outing downtown
  for a show pre-lockdown
starred a CG hedgehog named Sonic.

Pluto

Long time, lonely Pluto plied
the outermost orbit (or we thought so).
The scarcest speck in a telescope,
'til New Horizon's postcards home
revealed a frozen but varied view,
since then known by names of nightmares--
a topography of fictional terrors--
chthonian beings, Cthulhu to Balrog.
And the north pole of the psychopomp
moon Charon is Mordor itself.

Be Mine!

Who's'll be the one I kiss by moonlight,
or noonday sun or twilight?
Suezle's the one I'll kiss--and how!
And she'll kiss me back! Mee-yow!