5 Poems by Ken Gosse

 

Way Back at the Very Beginning or

The Death and Life of D’oh-Raymese, Maestro to the Pharaoh

 

With your bones and your marrow

entombed with the Pharaoh,

there’s really not much you can do;

throw the cats a fur ball,

maybe write on the wall,

etch your name so they’ll know it was you,

 

so he wrote a nice song

they could all sing along

in their last precious moments, so few,

and The Great D’oh-Raymese

we’ll remember with ease

when we start where his song tells us to.

 

Croquem Chokem (a song by D’oh-Raymese)

 

Dough. I’ll bake a loaf or two,

raisins soaked in wine and rum.

Meals from caterers we knew;

fossiled grandparents will come.

Sole, a nice filet or two;

la croquembouche stacked just so;

teeny hors d’oeuvres—not too few—

then it’s time to bake more dough. 

 

Domesticity Costs More Today, You Know (a song by D’oh-Raymese)

 

Domesticity today

raises questions of demand.

Meagre benefits and pay;

father needs a helping hand.

Solace from his wife’s employ;

lots of debt for each new toy;

teamwork should increase their joy—

but they need to rake in dough! 

 

A DoReMi Sports Presentation (a song by D’oh-Raymese)

 

Domed arenas everywhere;

rain won’t stop the game today,

Media beyond compare;

fossils referee each play.

Sol still shines above the scene,

lamenting the roof between.

Teams appear on every screen,

so they’ll rake in lots of dough, dough, dough,

from me. 

 

The Sound of Money (a song by D’oh-Raymese)

 

Don’t do that, because you can’t

raise the heart of greedy men.

Me? They will not hear my rant—

farthing, dollar, franc or yen!

Solace is not their forté;

la-la land is where I’ll go;

teasing sanity away

till I bring them back their dough, dough, dough,

DON’T

borrow from Ray!

   Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed verse using whimsy and humor in traditional meters. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, since then in Pure Slush, Parody, Home Planet News Online, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and others. Raised in the Chicago, Illinois, suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, over twenty years, usually with rescue dogs and cats underfoot.