A Donkey and the Shepherd, A Life Overprotected

Donkey with white hair
Copper tinted eyes
Sips bourbon from the troft outside
Runs like a racehorse
Crashes like a wasted day
You can tell he's been drinking
See the life in his eyes
Feel his heart beating
Snow haired donkey in a pasture full of grey

The oak trees are dripping
The scent of rust fills the air
I see drops of grease have made their way down to my hands
This tree won't be around for much longer
And the swaying braches say
"Enjoy me while you can"

In a way, people are a dime a dozen
Yet none will ever remind me of my cousin Helen
Magenta car, two dogs in the back, auburn hair and she's always mad about something
Making something of nothing
Disney world and the good old days
Where I could be myself

Margarita, key lime pie
I taste the salt from floating about into the ocean's arms
Seashells, seagulls, golf carts, and rude beach rangers
Yelling at me for simply having a good time
Ice cold beer don't get me wrong
I love you dad and mom
But sometimes it pays to bend the rules

Constellations on that farm
In my youth I was untouched
From all the things life is and isn't
See the dogs run and play
My mom knits me a sweater
I sleep with the lights on every night
I live with the lights on
Afraid of the dark
No chance and yet no happiness

Lady Magnolia

Deep in the old forest where no one dares tread
Lives Lady Magnolia consort of the Undead.
Her alabaster skin is translucent and her veins
Flow with blood that's black, and she feels no pain.
Owls and ravens warn her when a stranger approaches;
She rewards her pets with fat succulent roaches.
Alas, any wanderer that stumbles to her perch
Meets a horrifying fate; the townspeople won't search
Near Magnolia's garden. She grows hemlock and morning glory.
She was once a prince's mistress- but that's another story.
Her hollow home is bleak and silent like a barren womb;
Her solitude is solace like that of the tomb.
She hates the dawn and hides beneath a black funeral veil,
And speaks in foreign languages to fiends that live in hell.
The worms that crawl beneath the soil in her garden writhe
Just like the thoughts inside her- but her poison seeds still thrive.
She plots an end to the reign of those that have forsaken
Their duty to the children that her cruel master has taken.
It evens out, you see, the growing shoots and dying dreams.
Her victims pay with suffering, and sing to her in screams.
Legends linger on. The lady has been dead for centuries;
Yet sometimes she can be seen in shadows cast by trees.

Cat Tails on the Side

I pass the cat tails on the side,
She's been mentioning them lately.
I think if I remember,
I'll stop and pluck them, very quaintly.

I enter the house- one warm hug, one indifferent.
Oh, have I done it now?
Was it because I lost my cool?
I say hello, make cute faces.
Still, she is distant.
I sigh, retreat, worry about the other.
We load up. I pack stuff. And then I remember-
Oh yes!
The cat tails on the side!

I pull over unannounced, she calls me crazy.
I leap and bound over the ditch, snapping at the baby-
"Hush now, I'll be right back,
Just got to get this one.
Oh, okay. You'll have one too. Just wait a minute, hun!"

I'm light and playful,
Revealing to them the prize.
They giggle with glee.
Big eyes looking up at me.
I hope back in, buckle up, set the rear-view just right.
I intermittently glance back,
Seeing wondrous delight.

But then the one, not so distant, begins to pluck and pull.
"Momma" the other calls to me, "She has taken a turn!"
I do not let it bother me, still relishing in their glee.
"It's okay baby, just let her be."

I love to have the windows down on these warm summer nights,
But when I roll them down this time, it is all very far from right.
The cat tails whirl.
Pieces stir, big chunks in my mouth.
I dry out, cripple up, trying to see what's left of the daylight.
The singular furs, they pierce me now.
I cannot see ahead.
Luckily were almost home,
And it is time for bed.

"The Briar And The Rose"
Lyrics by Kathleen Brennan

I fell asleep down by the stream
And there I had the strangest dream
And down by Brennan's Glenn there grows
A briar and a rose

There's a tree in the forest
But I don't know where
I built a nest out of your hair
And climbing up into the air
A briar and a rose

I don't know how long it has been
But I was born in Brennan's Glenn
And near the end of spring there grows
A briar and a rose

P icked the rose one early morn
I pricked my finger on a thorn
It had grown so high
It's winding wove the briar around the rose

I tried to tear them both apart
I felt a bullet in my heart
And all dressed up in springs and clothes
The briar and the rose

And when I'm buried in my grave
Tell me so I will know
Your tears will fall
To make love grow
The briar and the rose