Meow by Mike
You get a house, the wife's not included
if you think differently you are
rather deluded
more likely you get a kitten
instead
Mew the kitten says, feed me translates
in your head
by three a.m. the mews have become
meows and you are filled with feline
dread.
Should have gotten married
you say to the cat who owns
everything on your homestead
in honor of "The Cat" by Ogden Nash
Somewhere in my memories of you
a balalaika plays a sad refrain
I am so young again
my brother plays the record
we found hidden amongst your things
the Prussian tunes are haunting
me tonight many years past
out of mind, out of sight.
Somewhere you are singing
about me and Bobby Mcgee
your heart in every line
like a Stoned Age Janis
up on the stage making each
word true, lost in time.
I only wish that I could know
what made such sweet sorrow
Somewhere you were a beautiful bride
marrying out there in the African countryside
I remember the strangeness of the church
all stone with age like an old suit worn
your dress so white sparkling in the morn
He, who played the many guitars
He, the awkward Irish groom waiting
for you midst the black cars
Somewhere I hope you have found the cats
your love for your girls, furry and fat
Perhaps I will see you one day
in the Indian Summer or perhaps
in the orange leaved Cherokee Fall
sitting by our stone brook singing
to Elvis for Saint Paul
You were always my dark-eyed princess
my muse and finally my friend
and this is where our time together
draws to a close, this is where the song ends.
For my Sister, Laura Kaye O'Donnell
When I was one and fifty
I thought I was old, I thought then
that is I did what I was told
that I'd grow in grace, I could be
brave, I could be bold
But now I am two and fifty
and I know it was all just a sill old sham
I am old and a little wiser
then I could have been as I am.
When I was One and Fifty
I thought that I knew what it was to forgive
Then I lost my mother, I lost the person which
for 22 years I did live
I found out that being here without her
was like discovering that everything is just a videogame
that the world is not what I thought it was
that nothing has remained quite the same
When I was one and fifteen
My mother formed the world that was in place
I dwelt in that state of normalcy
I lived it that paradise of grace
Now I am older and wiser
but I find that whenever the world storms
I cannot crawl back into my Mother's reality
a place where its peaceful and warm.
