The One About Dorothy Parker

As depicted in Al Hirschfeld's famous caricature: Dorothy Parker at the Algonquin Round Table (lower left) surrounded by Robert Benchley, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Frank Crowninshield, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Frank Case, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman and Robert E. Sherwood.

I ran my fingers through your hair
as you ran through Dorothy Parker's words
"Why is it that your poems don't rhyme?"
You cooed while gently twisting
the dagger in my heart.

What was it that Ms. Parker wrote?
"Scratch a lover, and find a foe."
It was in a ballad I think,
A ballad of great weariness.

Open Door

Standing on a street corner
waiting for a bus
in front of the Comex paint store.
Move out to the street
to see,
                 to see,
but no, not yet,
                 not yet,

Prayer to the Mother of Perpetual Help

A prayer answered on a fridge.

O Mother of Perpetual Help,
grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name,
which is the safeguard of the living
and the salvation of the dying.

On The Road: The End of the Road is Seal Beach

AJ Summers Memorial Tower at Seal Beach Pier, Seal Beach, California.

As summer winds down a journey west comes to an end south of Los Angeles. When there is no more road to carry forth an adventure, that adventure reaches it's natural conclusion. The shore of the Pacific Ocean at Seal Beach. All a weary traveler can do is walk to the end of a pier, pause, reflect and turn around as a new chapter is about to set sail.

While taking this walk along the pier at Seal Beach and contemplating a new life on the left coast it was comforting to find poetry on the pier. A short poem dedicated to the life of a local lifeguard. A reminder of life's frailty and the inherent natural beauty that surrounds each and every one of us.