Satyr

Satyr    sore from neck to shin    bent with age

bare among bushes  off the path   in long grass

uncaged    scratching first arse   then bearded chin

trying to remember where he's going

lost in reverence of female beauty

ardent women afire with passion

from a compassionate past he's reviewing

naked on a river bank lost in thought

swallows swooping over the river

ticks leaping from leaves into his unkempt hair  

sharp edged grasses scratching his lanky legs

a satyr stiffened at a nymph's approach

going back in time through his lusty life

a raven deriding him   raucous crows

ENVOI

a tired nurse from the rest home not a nymph

with the clothes he left behind in his room

coming to take him wash him and bathe him

much to that agéd old poet's chagrin

                                                © Dick Russell, 2015

                   A Library Mouse

                                for Eileen Myles

an earnest mouse emerges

from a library wall

quickly four footed

funny to the eye

a mouse begging a blunt hand

for smaller morsels

bewhiskered critics

mice consume literature

seldom understood

copyright © Dick Russell 2015

Song of the Children’s Feet

 

Trudge – said left foot to its partner Boot

trudge trudge – Boot replied

slippery slide down the slope    they cried

tobogganing trundle up to the top of the hill

WHEE they go back down again

trudge – said right foot

trudge trudge – said left

glittery glide down the slope    they cried

icy icy     nice and icy   trundle and trudge

copyright © Dick Russell  2014, 2017

         Aphrodite and  Donnelly

                      

Aphrodite came softly through the rose petals of a wedding

& finding the far gate      found Donnelly sitting in the rain

her manner was veiled

in her eyes     an expression of eyelashes

damp with concern

she came lightly through the wet fields

her silk scarf moistened by rain

only a soft rustle of leaves

faint imprints in the meadow

evidence of her passing

a piano accompaniment a conspiracy of violins

coming feminine through the fields

lighter than rose petals

lighter than rime

(she was wearing a cream raincoat

with brown buttons on it

belted tightly at the waist

her hair deep black

a royal blue scarf…)

Aphrodite held his tongue

Donnelly wondered Woody Allen style

whether to skip the dialogue

he came straight to the point

emboldened by her direct gaze

“Let’s not”

he tried to say

but she forbade him

                              © Dick Russell, 2014

               Lines For Beckett

                          13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989

                      He who propels life forward to death

                 from April to December

                             by day    by night

                                                   for many cycles of spring

                                                                       musing

                               to blind tides  

                                         deaf skies

                     a kind man

                    with unwithered love

                               of all mankind

                                           he who propels

                                                                        a woman

                            in a wheelchair                                                            towards us

                                       she  who propels                                                             destiny

                    We hide from the knowledge in their eyes

                   we want life to go on forever

                                                                                                                  sun always shining

                                 if it rains

                                        we want a rainbow

                                      © Dick Russell, 2014