December 15th 2021

 Your Ideal Man

Mourning

 Too Old, Too Young

When I'm too old to toil too young to die

I'll write some lines while my brain's still spry

not say in English gone fishing but Greek

a private joke only scholars find wry

Sing to me muses in tongues I can't speak

tone poems in languages I can't name

crystallize images happy or bleak

so my words can attribute blame or fame

Translate your meaning so I get your drift

Let me hear your music framing your chords

picture your meaning in words I can shift

into metrical patterns weaving your words

Sing to me muse with voice universal

each time I recite without rehearsal.

                                            Dick Russell, September 2021

 For Yvonne