Charles A Perrone

Out of the Blue

A rhythm 'n' blues tune got me thinking in a leading chromatic way

about the fact that blue is indeed the most common color in nature.

Blue Jays are natural beings but that doesn't mean they can't be mean.

Bluebonnets are not hats azure but wonderful floral decorations in fields.

A blue lobster is so rare that fishermen throw it back if found in their trap.

My obsessed brother reminds me that blue balls are part of the scheme.

He'll find a way to work the thin blue line into the conversation as well.

Blue laws were supposedly colonial but just consider current conjuncture.

And in the big picture, the pale blue dot is so bruised by its own inhabitants.

Thus, I picked up my modernist guitar to sing:    "It's all over now, Baby Blue."

 

Drawing a Situation to Scale

Kyle Tyler ascended sorely discontent with the wage scale

eventually coming to aspire to a new apt economy of scale

but on balance he too could see that the scales were tipped

in favor of cute chromatic scales on a scale of one to twelve

and that kale, collard greens, and mustard leaves have some

distinct advantages over slippery reptile armor and fish skins 

in the current court of culinary justice now growing up around

the sheer mountain of a task he will someday have to scale

sans recrimination and without antique scale or ladder

or any other instrument of aid others might offer him

if he truly wants to measure the scale of fright and fear

 

Closing Ceremony

The decision to hold the final event outside

in a nice park with amphitheater and lawns

was met with universal favorable approval.

I kept my timid distance from the main stage

although I could still hear the newly minted

sexagenarian executive director fishing for

much more applause for having completed

so many tasks and chores and this and that.

Across the way another jolly chap continued

to show off his big bagels and jumbo snacks

while I had no more than mere pretzel sticks

making me wonder why I was not out to dine.

Folks began arriving for an assumed costume ball:

a petite colleague dressed as a large mean magnate;

different friends as extravagant cartoon characters;

a triptych of kids incarnating a postcard from Greece.

So many images surrounding me as if to remind me

of my relative insignificance in the grand scheme of

things coupled with admittedly admirable sensitivities.