Early Plums

Where've you been sulking, wallflower Spring,
jilting us 'til just about June?
(At least--last night I looked on Google--
here in the Bay. In Alberta,
Calgary, I kid you not,
it's a summery 74°!)
But chilly shoulder or not, your charms
are blossoming--blush if you must--
in vain you think them invisible.
Those purple-leaf plum-trees have pluckable fruit;
not purple enough yet, and tasting--tart
'd be a word for it--but we can wait.

Failed Attempt to Write a Poetic Apology for a Church Poetry Group

By our first UU principle we've been taught
that the feelings of others deserve our thought.
    but Trump, you've been dumped,
and I'm sorry that pains you. NOT!!!

An Uncomfortable Lesson in 3-Dimensional Topology

In your morning routine, if you make a slip
binding your belt from hip to hip
  and turn it one twist--
  Any analyst
of mathematics will tell you: You've made a Möbius strip.

In Praise of Bad Movies (Within Limits)

There was pathos in Detective Pikachu:
we found that Pokémon have feelings too.
There's childish charm to Godzilla & Co--
in a lizard suit, sure looks like a hoot
to demolish a scale-model Tokyo.
For philosophic soliloquies
Roger Corman can't but please
with speeches proclaimed like the prayer of a preacher:
"He learned, almost too late, that man is a feeling creature..."
Well,  B-movies don't play at the Berlinale,
and they don't win the Palme d'Or or prizes as Venice,
but say what you will, still my samples are all
better by far than The Phantom Menace.

Red, Brown, and Yellow Leaves

Crunch underfoot, craft-glue something,
make a kid earn money leaf-blowing.
Just enjoy red-shifted leaves and don't read
some melancholy metaphor.
This is biking weather. Wear gloves,
keep your fingers warm and you'll be fine.
Our hemisphere will have its turn
on the sunny side again next summer,
and Earth will be fine; the old girl's got
a billion-odd good orbits in her yet,
and meanwhile the kids will work it all out.

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.