An Ode To This And That

Here’s to the miraculous atheistic Cosmos,

to highly peppered scrambled eggs
with hot coffee on a snowy morning,

to those rare, sacred days
when the muses sing and one’s pen takes wing,

to the great continent of Africa where I’ve never been,

to raging wild-fires making all new again,

to sweetly swinging child-bearing hips,

to friends of mine on beautiful, hectic trips,

to Steinbeck’s legends of Cannery Row,

to those who with bravery face the death blow,

to Arab discipline and warm hospitality,

to the almost 1 percent of American men in jail,

to the vast, tranquil desert round Moab, Utah

to those who are stoned…

and rise up again!!