Two Sonnets, 29 & 30
Looking Down and Then Across

I listened to my neighbor
describing the "strange couple"
across the street.  They only come out
to get the mail, pale as goblins.
Of course, he's not that way.
He likes football, backyard barbecues,
Moody Blues, The Grateful Dead,
kids, cats, croquet, MacDonald's fries,
and both President Bushes.
Another neighbor, down the street,
sometimes revs his motorcycle at night
and squeals, peels and wakes him up.
He would never do that.  Yet he lights
firecrackers on Good Friday.

Looking down and then across,
I told one friend about another in
oblivion, six cats relieving themselves -
a pee epidemic in her house, six cats
relieving themselves and she's in oblivion!
But she's kind and I'm sad and it hurts
my nose to visit.  Then there's the woman
at The Course in Miracles class
whose nose is stuck upon the ceiling
affecting her hearing and the man winking
at me behind his wife's back in the grocery
line and here I sit posting and telling this to
you, like my neighbor who lights
firecrackers on Good Friday.