[New-Poetry] Poem With Common Words

[James Cervantes]

Pedestrian

This time of year, a person can easily waste a day or a week
considering what thing to buy for a woman, man, or child.
In this case, part of the problem is the government,
group, or company one works for.  One hand
takes what another provides, if you get my point.
The fact is, one must keep an eye out when stepping
off the curb and not place yourself in the way
of an Olaf and be part of that number
losing a life in this holiday world.

- Jim

On 11/29/07, TheOldMole <Opus40-01 at opus40.org> wrote:
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> POEM IN COMMON WORDS
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> From the Oxford English Dictionary:
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> The list of top 25 nouns: time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world,
> life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point,
> government, company, number, group, problem, fact.
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> There comes a time in every person's life,
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> When he or she must face a crossroad, joint
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> Or several: a career, a husband, wife,
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> Serving the Lord, if you He doth anoint,
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> Or brigandage, the pistol and the knife,
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> Or pure sloth. To take a case in point,
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> Consider Olaf: we'll give him a voice,
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> The Everyman who has to make a choice.
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> Consider Olaf: by vocation, plumber,
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> When first encountered, chauvinist and jerk,
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> He'd be the second lead in Dumb and Dumber.
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> He figures, what's a job without a perk?
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> --Takes several, but at last they've got his number,
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> It's One too many. Now he's out of work.
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> Perhaps, he tells himself, it's for the best.
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> I'll take a year off, and I'll start a quest.
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> What have I never tried? His first thought's group
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> Sex, but it turns out that presents a problem.
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> His abs and biceps long have flown the coop,
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> He's left with a physique approaching blobdom.
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> He sighs, and dips himself another scoop.
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> Were he a master thief, perhaps he'd rob them,
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> But chocolate marshmallow and licorice
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> Leave him with none but Hershey for a kiss.
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> His next solution is to overthrow
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> The government – he'll start his own conspiracy!
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> He calls Pat Robertson to raise the dough –
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> It doesn't work. He's just accused of heresy.
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> Maybe Bill Gates? No luck for our poor shmoe,
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> He has to face a rap for software piracy.
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> He's sentenced to a year and then a day,
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> He knows there's got to be a better way.
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> He vows his malefactions to atone.
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> His sentence up, he's tossed out on his rump and he
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> Bounces in the direction he's been thrown.
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> Then, skidding to a stop, he hears a bump and he
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> Swivels around to find he's not alone,
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> In fact, our Olaf's got himself some company.
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> A soft, warm hand is holding his, a human
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> Touch, a sympathetic eye: in short, a woman.
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> The thing is, Olaf's found that life's not part
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> Of anything – it is the world, the cosmos is
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> Enfolded in the place we call the heart.
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> A home, a child – we find it by osmosis,
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> Not once a week, but every day – we start
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> And end with just this thought; it's more than gnosis,
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> It's Zen, it's karma, everything we're hot for,
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> Our Olaf has become a bodhisattva.
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>   --
> Tad Richards
> http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
> http://opusforty.blogspot.com/
>
> The moral is this: in American verse,
> The better you are, the pay is worse.
>  --Corey Ford
>
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