ELOQUENCE                  99           



 She was a cute angel at an acute angle 

Credentials presented 
By stuttering in eloquence
The sum effect - a chorus line
Of tap dancing elephants
Gave up on the tactics, 
And tried to be tactful
Cut to the chase, 
And the finishing line
Borrowed a style 
While still feeling bashful
My poetry dying due to the wine

How all the boys come onto the girls
Seems just like throwing
Swine at the pearls
Now consummate unoriginal sin
On a coat held together
By dangerous pins
And I’m walking with pride
So assured of a fall
My seduction disguised 
As kindly advice 
As if a toothpick could chip 
A thirty foot wall
And allow me re -enter
Some lost paradise

The foreplaying of
Some casual lies
The hallmarking of 
The genuine guy
We’ve exhausted the topics 
Of films and our weather
This candlelit night 
Tears us closer together
The pretend gypsy fiddlers
Embarrassingy near
Our table is spotlit
As cynics appear

All conversation is small talk
A  prelude to  Song
With music as a crutch
I’m staggering on.