_____

 

 

Flowers

Where have all the flowers gone?

Have I been asleep?

Gone
The brilliant yellow sunshine crispness of
June Christy….
The seductive red rouge intimacy of
Jeri Southern…
The smooth rich rose caress of
Julie London…
Varieties no longer.

Have I been dozing?

Retired
The subtle tinged black deep maroon smolder of
Peggy Lee…
The crisp clean white focus of
Anita O’Day…
The tightly scaled variegated antics of
Annie Ross
Unseen… out of sight.

The original bright orange phrasings of
Chris Connor…

It is too late to appreciate
These flowers
today?

 

*

 

 

Ballad in a Sad Cafe

You can not go
to the Sad Cafe
alone.
You must go with a friend.
You must leave alone.
You will leave alone.
While you are there
The ballad
will hurt you.
It will
rasp across
your soft
vulnerabilities
and you will bleed.
Then you will know
you have been
to the Sad Cafe.
You will know.

I have been there.

 

 

_____

 

Lawrence J. Klumas is a retired USAF officer, an engineer, a Viet Nam veteran, and a past Assoc VP Occidental College (Facilities).  He has a BS In Business Administration from Eastern Nazarene College, and both a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University.

He has written poetry since 1958, and continued writing modestly, but, most recently re-immersed himself in writing with a passion.  He has been published in Que scais-je, Diocesan Messenger, currently reading at Writers Read in Fallbrook CA. He contributes a weekly poem to the Episcopal newsletter.

He and his wife Janet split their time between Gig Harbor, Washington and Fallbrook CA.