Cartoon by Fish–Dwayne Booth

Perfect Love

Song and Lyrics by Trisha Yearwood

Sunday mornin’ when the paper comes
Let’s read it front to back and see what’s going on
Drink our coffee by the flower bed and talk about the stuff
That’s running through our heads
When you look at me the way you do
I can’t help but look right back at you

[Chorus]
Yeah, this is a perfect love
We’re doin’ nothin’ but what a perfect love does
We’re not tryn’ to make history
It’s just you and me in a perfect love
Hey let’s drive to the edge of town
See what there is to see and then turn back around
Stop by and see your Mom and Dad
And hear ’em talk about the busy week they had
Then let’s take a walk beside the lake
See what kind’ a fun we can make

[Chorus]
(Oh) ain’t it a perfect love
I know you love me just because

[Chorus]
(Oh, ain’t it a perfect love)
This is a perfect love
(Oh, ain’t it a perfect love)
Ain’t it a perfect love
(Oh, ain’t it a perfect love)
Hey, we gotta perfect love

The World is Not Coming to an End

A Poem by Michael H. Brownstein

One one by four oak plank,
a water logged salt stained antler of driftwood,
the soft skin of butternut bark and scar.

The world is coming to an end, she said,
and the young girl down the street
tied a dog’s leash around her neck
and went for broke. Elsewhere,
a dust of clouds rose from the shoreline,
smoke from a mountain shaft tinged the air,
an airplane let loose flames that blackened in the light.

How much strength to rise each morning,
eyes injured on a disfigured face,
the rocking of the body, the rhythm of what is heard
and what is not heard.

The world is coming to an end, she said,
and a boy was born to the mother of a soldier,
the son of a veteran in another round of war.
Count the fingers, count the toes,
how does his face look?

Years will go by,
a tree will mature and grow strong.
The world will not come to an end.

Let’s gather wood on the beach near the dunes.
You know the place–down the thick sand trail,
across a few ridges, near the graveyard of branches
where leaf changes to stone.

Once we dug a hole in the sand, placed sleeping bags
for flooring, built a roof with whatever wood
we could find. Openings filled themselves with night
and we slept well.

First published in poetrysuperhighway.com

When Gift Recipients Show Dissatisfaction

from Miss Manners:

“I’m so sorry you were disappointed. I will not be running the risk of disappointing you again.”

Guerrilla-Girls