Charles Hancock

On that pleasant spring morning,
when the birds are out and performing
and the sun's rays are warming
...

Back in the days of wine and roses
Photographs were perfect poses
Of a happy young couple grinning
We were at the top of the first inning
...

He is yesterday's hero
Enlisted to save the French
Got gassed fighting from a trench
...

I was enjoying being alone
In my dimly lit comfort zone
Reading about Joey Ramone
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone
...

Walkin' After Midnight was playing
And she was seductively swaying
Then she tossed back a shot of whiskey
And said she was feeling a bit frisky
...

Arrived at the right place but at the wrong time
Brandishing your tenderness like organized crime
Affection towards me as pleasing as caustic lime
...

Today, Indiana sadly buried one of its own
A young man killed in a foreign combat zone
A kid really, he was only nineteen
He had always wanted to be a Marine
...

We serenely sat on the front porch swing
Listening to a mockingbird sing
It was nearly dusk at her family's homestead
She broke off a hunk of French bread
...

It was a strange but not unusual alliance
That involved a conspiracy of silence
Yet he knew better, but still hoped for
Something she continued to ignore
...

She sits in rainy solitude
Serenely waiting his return
Just time and quietude
...

Today, I listened to the banshee's wail
Some believe that to be an old wives' tale

Today, I heard the ringing of the death knell
...

She'd nearly finished her green gater
When I informed our waiter
Of what we wanted for food and drink
I stressed to him, absolutely no pink
...

He fervidly kissed her goodnight
Under a luminous moon light
It was remarkably late
For only their second date
...

If I had an discarded Mason jar
For keepsakes that remind me of you
It would glow like the North Star
From all the things I'd compress into
...

There is a young lady with a old soul
Her virtues are something to extol
She'll smile and give you a wink
Even when the gab really does stink
...

Once I knew the way back home
Restless hearts tend to roam
Like a discarded bottle in the ocean
Just going along with the motion
...

We can't stop the time bandit
From snatching the sands of time
Like rain and wind on granite
Mother Nature's merciless crime
...

Hot summer night
Soft breeze blew
Full moon bright
...

It's so easy to remember
It's so hard to forget
Your sweet surrender
No remorse, no regret
...

Listening to Jimmy croon Cheeseburger in Paradise
Enduring the blah winter months that I so despise
Musing on charcoal smells and watching smoke rise
...