David McLansky Poems

In the Sacristy (43)

The Bishop Judge was much displeased, 

'A canker sore, a vile disease, 

Can broadly spread its foul infection, 

...

We bargained hard for Mississippi
To be the Country line,
Iowa was furious
And said the West was mine,
...

Ah, you stingy Miss
With your oyster stew,
Are you serving late
An army crew?
...

Approaching evening
Between the branches and the gray green leaves
Big Sad Eyes and a small mouth
Hardly big enough to push a cherry through;
...

Down in the Dungeon
in the grey stone Keep,
They shoved me down
Cut stone steps steep;
...

When David heard that Absalom
Had crowned himself in old Hebron
He fled his city, Jerusalem,
To make a stand in the Wadi Kidron.
...

The narrow soul
Exacts a toll
On everything
It can't control;
...

She kissed me ever so tenderly
Upon my lips and said to me,
“Last night before I went to sleep
I thought I heard the Angels weep;
...

I say this without a hintt of malice

But when I think of radishes
...

Indeed, my Lord,
You seem detached,
Yet you answer with intense dispatch,
One minute merry
...