<B>Life is a Cafeteria</B> <br /> <br /> Life is a cafeteria because <br /> there are too many dishes <br /> for one small tray <br /> and you have to stand in line <br /> when you’re hungry. <br /> <br /><B>Dashboard Humility</B> <br /> <br /> Turn the key. <br /> No lecture <br /> no homily, <br /> just a single word: <br /> 'Airbag' <br /> <br /><B>Anatomy of Arrogance</B> <br /> <br /> A shivering ball of fear, <br /> wrapped in a crust of pride <br /> too thick for sharpest arrows, <br /> huddles alone but well protected. <br /> <br /> Strutting from a seated position, <br /> he/she hopes beyond all dread <br /> that none will ever come to know <br /> the terror behind the mask. <br /> <br /><B>Modern Narcissis</B> <br /> <br /> Narcissus leaned forward <br /> to better view his matchless beauty <br /> and tumbled to watery doom. <br /> <br /> Beloved America, <br /> how far can we lean in self adoration <br /> before our coasts tilt into the seas? <br /> <br /><B>Combo</B> <br /> <br /> In a combo, no one’s supposed <br /> to hog the lead on every tune. <br /> So let's all pitch in on the head, <br /> take a chorus now and then <br /> and try to keep up with the changes. <br /> <br /><B>Eternal Dust</B> <br /> <br /> Cradling a handful of Illinois dust, <br /> dry residue of sycamore, deer <br /> and ancient Mississippians, <br /> I splay my fingers like an eagle's claw - <br /> and release it to the fickle breezes. <br /> <br /> A sudden gust of wind <br /> swirls up an ocher cloud - <br /> a cyclonic dervish of sand and clay. <br /> My hand, upraised for a shield <br /> ever so briefly vanishes - <br /> veiled by the impatient dust. <br /> <br />(To the reader: this a kind of suite of previously posted poems. I would be interested in whether you think the combination works) .<br /><br />Robert Charles Howard<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fugitive-visions/
