Ode 1.23

Why do you look at me like
A deer in headlights
Breathless
Eyes restless
Looking for your mother deer
Afraid of every little thing that moves?
Your tiny heart starts thumping
When the leaf rustles
When the wind hustles
You quiver like a bowl of jelly.
Relax!
No lion or tiger or bear am I
And you’re no little deer alone,
Forlorn.
You’re a stag, baby, full grown.
Nice horns.

Ode 4.10 - Youthful Arrogance

You gorgeous young stuck-up son of a bitch.

Right now you are tasty

but strange hairs of grey will soon be sprouting

in unlikely patches

while as if in exchange those on your head

will fall off in batches

and your once proud skin sags down with despair

all wrinkled and pasty

You too will become an “old troll” as I.

You don’t believe me now...

and you won’t believe it then.

You’ll gape at yourself in the mirror and cry

“Who is this creature who stands in my place?

Who bears my proud name

but bends downward with shame?

And what became of my once pretty face?

How can so much of me have changed, passed by,

when I am still the same? The same?”

Ode 2.3 - Some Frank Advice

Don’t let the rough times make you cry -
Dellius, Dellius, you will die.
Don’t in good times lose your head -
Someday, Dellius, you’ll be dead.

So you can live your life despairing
Wear nihilism like a shroud
Or spend a drunken life not caring
In a hedonistic cloud

But don’t expect a different ending
Than the one we all come by
You can’t stop the river’s wending
Or trees from reaching for the sky.

Might as well enjoy the ride,
Dellius, Dellius, by my side
And appreciate the day
Together, Dellius, while we may.

All the riches you can hoard
Possessions, property, and fame,
No matter how securely stored
Will someday be another's claim.

In a mansion, coffers swelling,
Or meekly in a peasant's shack,
A grave will one day be your dwelling
And nobody can call you back.

Enjoy whatever fortune sends
Dellius, Dellius, for it ends.
Someday, Dellius, we all float
Into the dark on Charon's boat.