SONG: MMMMM

Come to my cave

Lie here beside me

All things you crave

I crave them too

If I behave

Strangely or badly

I’m not a knave

I’m simply madly

Completely madly

Mmmmm

Mmmmm

Come to my heart

Enter its artery

Don’t think me smart

Or this mere flattery

I shake and start

What can the matter be?

Surely it’s gotta be

Mmmmm

Mmmmm

Every dentist shows the tooth a drill

Every doctor prescribes a small pill

Every watchmaker makes time stand still

I’m a suitor who hopes I suit you

Come to my arms

Feel my bulging muscles

Keep you from harm

Free from brutal tussles

Don’t be alarmed

It’s no luster’s hustle

I’m simply madly

Completely madly

Never to be sadly

Always quite gladly

Even Scotch plaidly

Madly and gladly

Mmmmm

Mmmmm

Roger Armbrust

June 30, 2014

OKLAHOMA COOL

David speaks of his grandfather growing

businesses in Howe, where the Rock Island

crossed the Kansas City Southern. Folks’d bring

him cowhides and bones from the prairie, grand

items he’d ship to KC for cash. He

built a first-class general store, coal mines,

lumber mill with sawdust piles recycled

to buffer railroad-car walls—thickly lined

to preserve ice blocks. Used new wired cool cars

to ship in greens, oysters from the Gulf coast

for holidays. Treated pandemic scars

of flu in ’18, respecting loved ghosts

of relatives killed: bought a second home

to care for their children. Fifty would come.

Roger Armbrust

June 29, 2014

KNOWLEDGE

Soft light on tree leaves

ignites images of great

light on leaves of books.

MUSE’S MIGHT

Hunting with a lyre

Erato sings and wild beasts

lie tame at her feet.

RESPONSE

“Tell me how you feel

when we make love,” she said. So

I write love sonnets.