An Ugly Tree

Written on a cold day after a hot quarrel.


I hang a ball each day
upon a homely tree
wishing that bright array
would help to make you see

To see beyond the gnarls
and spindly trunk so bent
the meaning of our spats
and other words misspent

Love is not a pretty thing
like many things that grow
yet with care it can bring
a joy only lovers know

The joy of a whole in parts
with many breaks and rendings
yet knowing in our hearts
the strength of mendings

Farmers sow a thousand seeds
Spring, Summer and Fall
then reap a million weeds
before Winter kills them all

As cold, frost and snow set in
the ice reflects our dream
not a love that might have been
but a living tree, ever green.

GORILLAS *

Back in the day, I used to fly between Hawaii and Alaska on a fairly regular basis. On one of those trips, I met a Scandinavian lass who was one of nature's naturals - no make-up, no perfume, no cosmetics at all. Nor did she shave - anywhere! On occasion, she would visit the islands and as you might expect, she wore as little as possible on those sunny shores. After she departed, my 'friends' would have no end of fun at her expense. They christened her 'Hairy Mary'. The following was written as a response to their unkindness.

I care not for ladies that shave
Shorn legs and pits I don't crave
Some fuzz on their arms
just adds to their charms
and lip moss brightens my days

I never understood how
pencil makes a better brow
My libido crashes
under bushwhacked lashes
Why I don't know now

I'm fond of a nuzzle or peck
on the nape of a downy neck
And my hand still relies
on the velvet of thighs
to make me a quivering wreck

So why all those complexes
about hair at her nexus?
Trimming round that mound
is surely unsound
and hazardous to both sexes

* The word gorilla comes from the classical Greeks who believed the great apes were a tribe of hairy women