February 19,1988
THE LANCE
page 7
Quill & Tnk
♦SUGAR PLUMB FAIRY IN THE
NIGHT
sugar plumb fairy in the night
told me it was a lemon
she was right
i climbed the lemon tree
broke my nail on the bark
only to find a red squirrel
staring at me as if i were crazy
maybe i was, but at least i was not a smelly
red squirrel
in a lemon tree
i was whatya’d call indignant
sugar plumb fairy in the day
told me about green leafy vegetables
told me about the four food groups
told me not to get fat
told me a lot of things like that
some of them worthwhile, some of them
not
sugar plumb fairy in luUabye time
sit down with me and pass the wine
they told me to be consistent
but they don’t really mind
they watch me from the comers of their
eyes
and call me cute
so let us chat awhile
you will tell me your secrets and
i will tell you mine
and we can both pretend we got something
real important to say
ruthecki.es
It’s hard to say goodbye
when it will hurt and does
nothing
It’s hard to rip two hearts apart
and destroy what could have been
It’s hard when time and feelings collide
in a searing flame of emotions
tangled in dreams of love.
Too much pain to cause more
Too much time wasted in a desperate
search for happiness
ending in pain.
The birds cry and wheel around the
clouds of dreamers
Picking at the most vulnerable wounds.
I ni sorry doesn’t help.
BONNIE BLACKBURN
*THE IMP
My impatience with your imperfections
Is just my impatience with my own
Imperfections,
But
I am impudent enough
To be impatient with your
Imperfections.
Please do not impugn or imprecate me,
I am not impeccable for
I am impeded by my imperfections.
And
You are too important to me
To imperil what we have:
I am too impolite to apologize properly
For my imperfections,
But
Thank you for impelling me to this.
JO FROST
what a piece of work is man
how noble in reason
how infinite in faculty
in form and movement
how express and admirable
in apprehension
how like a god...
HAMLET (by way of Wm. Shakespeare)
♦TWELVE LONG-STEMMED ROSES
Look into your heart and tell me what you
see.
Can you recall special moments shared by
you and me?
I’m afraid my memory is fading fast.
The sun draws the Earth, yet she resists the
same.
I once attracted you now you can’teven say
my name.
Couples hold hands and cherish the love
they share.
But all I get from you is an empty stare.
I'm trying so hard to hold on.
Red-breasted robins tell us all of romance,
But some like us may never get the chance.
On the day of love, I have nothing to do,
No place to go, no one I can show my
feelings to.
It’s going to take a lot Of time.
One long-stemmed rose I give to you to
help your heart heal.
Eleven I keep, because the pain is greater
that I feel.
•GOODBYE
Together they could be alone
and there was no one in the world but them
their memories cast in sand and stone
and there was no one in the world but them
Their pictures fade, and gather dust
their smiles, their love has now been
crushed
now with no future, now with no past
it shreds my heart like shattered glass
My mind cannot escape their stare
I smell the stench, I feel its glare
a familiar sorrow I cannot feel
it blinds my eyes with shafts of steel
They smiled, because
there was no one in the world but them
they died,
and there was no one in the world but them
DAVID SOUTHWOOD-SMITH
♦SCOTCH TAPE
Why not Dutch tape
with a sea salty glue?
Or French tape
with risque pictures on it, loo?
Or West German tape
stained barley yellow like beer?
Or Soviet tape
printed with propaganda to cause
fear?
Why not South African tape
naming who lies and who cries.
Or even American tape
decorated with closed eyes?
But no, it’s
Scotch tape with a cute
little plaid tab on the
beginning of every roll.
LAURA ROSE
*THE REIGN OF CHAOS
Here I stand
Entropy
Overwhelming
Me.
The picture I take represents
Trees
In a confused
Tangle.
One or two
Trees
Look all right.
But
These many
Trees
Eradicate my sense of
Order.
It’s the epitome
Of entfopy.
OLIVER W. WILSON JR.
JO FROST