J. Ryberg

High Hats and Fancy Pants

Sure, man, maybe your

metropolitan double-

speak is slicker than

deer guts on a door knob, and

maybe your pants are

fancier than most and your

silk top hat all the

higher off the ground with you

sittin’ up there on

the pure-bred Lipizzaner

you rode in on, and

maybe, just maybe, you are

the first born of the

second-coming, but that don’t

make you the boss o’ me, pal!

Testify (Tanka)

He could testify

with the best of them, but his

halo was always

in danger of being blown

away by the slightest breeze.

Boy, You Need to Get Your Head Right*

In case you ain’t been

hipped, yet, daddy-o, there’s no

sitting on the dance

floor, no pausing the movie

of Life just so’s you

can get up and go to the

bathroom or freshen

your drink, no place of rest for

the wicked or the

righteous on this non-stop, round-

the-clock conveyor

belt, carrying us to Death’s

big drop-kick off the

edge of the world, no as-of-

yet generally

accepted algorithm

for tracking the flight-

patterns of butterflies or

the trajectories

of sparks scattering from the

sacred fire at the

heart of the old-growth forest

of our hybrid mind

or collective soul or what-

ever you want to

call it. So, best get your head

right, boy, or get left behind.

Ladder to the Stars (Tanka)

Stuck somewhere in the

middle of a ladder to

the stars: too afraid

to keep on climbing up, and

too afraid to ease back down.

Hello, There, Mr. Daddy Long Legs

Old Man Billy Goat

(even with his impressive

beard) is no match for

the clean-shaven bull, should they

meet, one day, in the

clover patch (though they may both

run hot with the pitched

fever of life) nor should the

praying mantis, de-

spite all his extensive kung-

fu training, square off

with the charging primer gray

Camaro in the

middle of the two-lane high-

way that winds through the

gently rolling hills of South /

Central Missouri,

and we should all, probably,

practice a little

more caution in our daily

routines (‘specially

when it comes to practicing

caution), and hello,

there, Mr. Daddy Long Legs,

I see you crawling

up my bedroom wall. What can

I do for you, this morning?