Bradford Pairs

Staged in neat horizontal rows: Linear. Like so many Bradford pear trees
Beaming out at us from the "Society" section of the Sunday newspaper
Complete with full frontal smiles betraying idealism grafted onto ignorance

"McNeil weds O'Henry at Our Lady of Perpetual Agony"
"Thompson and Blakely to say vows in garden ceremony"
"Spencer and Lyons to wed at Second Presbyterian Church"
"Barton and Smith exchange vows at Cheekwood Tea Room"

Don't these young lovers ever read the articles in the "Living" section of this same newspaper? Haven't they spoken with acknowledged experts in the field; and learned that their odds of survival intact are fifty-fifty at best? And even then, the blooming season is so truncated. And afterward, there's fifty drab weeks staring over coffee every morning at a snarling mangle of branches, grappling with an overwhelmed trunk.

Scenario A reveals the blushing bride cannot be expected to be constrained by such mundane concepts as decorum and property rights; that she finds wings on warm breezes and elopes into the wild: to be exposed and recognized by anybody in the know, as an invasive pest.

Scenario B discovers that the first good strong thunderstorm or sheer wind past the third year of planting effortlessly snaps off one or more of the main branches; and so now the poor home-owner is wedded to an amputee flaying in a chorus line. And what on earth can you possibly do about that?


Copyrite © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

preview to "The Gospel Chariot" chapter 15

So… While the fired up congregation was seeking the little lost lamb of little Jerusalem, and while the deputy dog was sniffing and barking up the tree of the itinrate false prophet, and so as the psyched out sidekick was stumbling through the locust thicket - after having left open the gate to Chubby Davis’ goat pasture - while the local lowriders played forty dogs and dominos - and then again while the puppy was pouting and the deputy doubting what the prophet was spouting - while new crowds were assembling, into what was by then resembling a genuine artist's rendering of a free concert featurnig the Baldwin Sisters and the “Daughters of Eve” review. And while the preacher was mumbling while I myself I was fumbling - the whole experience being very humbling - Because I was the dumsumbich left the door cracked open.


Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

Preview of "The Gospel Chariot"

....Back at the domicile upon gobsmacked six, the confusion was beginning to take concrete shape, like when Jello Instant pudding firms up and sets into blissful viscosity from liquid milk mixed with powder. The keyboard on the new laptop I’d bought to facilitate easier communication with the other side, was popping like Orvil Redenbacker - and the instant message box of the desktop soon revealed that all the saints in Haintville were upset that Isabella was nowhere to be found and that she was not answering repeated calls to come to around for a late night snack. It was to be a restless night - what with the pacing of the floors by the church hat and the closing of doors and the creaking and cracking and restless bed tossing by the CO-OP cap: but I suppose that’s rightfully as is to be expected in any haunted house situation ...

Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

Concrete Lion

Stumbled up while on memory safari in the "picture drawer" in your Memphis apartment
Crinkled 8" x 10" glossy black & white Drama Club photo one corner dog-eared and bent
You - most handsome of a pair of concrete lions - guarding the pride on the steps at school
Statuesque feline harem all White Shoulders and Tussy fresh - embracing the morning's cool

Right here in my 21st Century hand - evidence beyond doubt of paradise here on earth
Chock full of good measure Seems like beauty oozes up from the Mississippi mud afterbirth
Each Southern Comfort wet-dream come-true kitten more alluring than the next in line
Implicit in each Judy Garland smile your life as her King Leo could be made near pure divine

Bobbie socks turned down to tease us for another two inches of peach fuzz porcelain glazed skin
Poodle skirts with saddle oxfords and cotton blouses shrouding waists oh so sugar wafer thin
That "genuine" silk scarf adorned by many so they told their Mommy - the latest fashion craze
But all the while an accessory strategic which veils a high hickey for a few short days

And you Dad, such catch by all considered - must have known for nearly ole time gospel truth
That half or more these bonnie belles should have given up their near about everything to you
Birthed your genetically perfect babies Enlarged her humble hips and spread your evening table
If she could just be your femme de la first choice - some time some way some how could be able

Arlene Johns or Betty Lou Sparks - always offering to help you study for you mid term tests
Here’s Dixie Leigh Harvey best - dressed junior jostling her coconut-contoured breasts
Caged all up in magnolia-bloom white and elastic - Such standing at attention-getters!
Playing peek-a-boo with me half century later Teasing through translucent argyle sweaters

Which dames here depicted? How many other poor sluts not captured and thus hereby shown
Mindful of you - your perfect hair on how many muggy cricket-chirp nights - as she would moan
While coaxing timid fingers into Tupelo honey Tempting her hopeful heart’s desire
or parked in your dad’s Rambler underneath sappy pines the air surround you both afire

Which ones settled down with what second-choice husbands once you seceded Serengeti?
Renounced the fertile delta and roamed toward preservation - some preacher school in Tennessee
Why beg to be excused from Eden’s early banquet table? Ambled off stalking more exotic lair
The scent thereby mislaid down which shadowed trail now strayed? Snatched in what secret snare?


Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

'77 Songs (song lyric sort of thing)

I'm not saying I'm less than happy
about this sundae split in two
Not to imply I'm not content to be
in a big old lonely world with you

I'll not pretend I'm your provider
and I'm all right to tag along
I'm content to ride and let you drive
and sing your '77 songs

I'm only saying I don't deserve it
I'm just trying to say that's it's all you
You never did one single thing to hurt me
Stayed along and saw some hard times through

No I can't claim you were ever hateful
and I can't pretend I'd never lied
But I was never short of faithful
Fact is I never even even tried

I'm not suggesting that I'm in a hurry
Sometimes it's worth it just to wait
I just get nervous I don't worry
might get angry but I won't hate

I'm only saying I don't deserve it
I'm just trying to say that it's all you
You never did one single thing to hurt me
Stayed along and saw some hard times through


Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

Lollygag

Would you mellow with me?
Could you yellow like chardonnay?
Wouldn't you like to have a seat?
Shouldn't think to be on your way

Will you ignore invention?
Let me ply you with lying lips
We'll lollygag less intention
I'll tingle every tip to tip

Won't you ferment with me?
Can take lifetimes to get just right
Perhaps it's partially ready
A few more yellow days and nights

Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

Bewitched

In the blinking of an eye
Lost my equilibrium whenever you walked by
Scarcely could have been foreseen
Bewitched me when you twitched your nose at me

With the waving of a wand
Your "accio muchacho" took me away past fond
Upon the chiming of Big Ben
Sucked into a worm-hole opened up and let me in

At the closing of a door
Walked out upon whatever might have come before
Within the flicker of this candle
Let's stir up our very own little cause for scandal

Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One

Too Much Cotton (Tribute to Queer Eye for the Straight Guy)

Jump down: turn around
I'm wearing too much cotton
My eye for style and sharp profile
Guess I'd sorta' just forgotten

Stuck in a rut, with a bad hair cut
Sure could use a trip to Lanskey's
Some groom advice would be right nice
From them good ole' manly man-skies

I'm not fly but I'm your guy
Straight-focused never waivers
Just dress me up and take me out
You girls are some real life-savers

Copyright © 2010 Jerry Buckley / Voice of One