The Literary Review
This Morning
When
the light came down
on the yellow building
with the red roof
it came down softly
pushing the shadows
away
Sitting at my window I
asked old
unanswerable questions
And thought of Heraclitus
and his ever changing
stream
And I Thought of how I have
traveled through years
of streams and brooks
seeing shadows on the
water
And I wanted to be
(this day) always grateful
for the light
knowing the darkness
it so skillfully hides
And grateful too for
the shadows
Grateful for the cool water
of the stream on my feet
after so long a journey.
- Frank Murphy
Teen
We’re too old to be silly, too young to be mature
Our futures are unknown, everything is left unsure.
School is tough, no time for a break
If you aren’t getting A’s, you’re making a mistake.
Hours are long, sleep is scarce
You’re told “we understand, can’t you see we care.”
These are the best years of your life. Go out and party.
What about school? What about grades?
What about making sure you stay safe?
You’re told to be careful. You’re told to have fun.
Stop telling us what to do.
We’re teenagers don’t you know.
We’re not listening to you.
- Emma Brumberger
Villanelle
To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.
You can live it up when you’re truly dead.
And dance macabre as the vampires sing
You take your head off and give it a fling
For you know mid-night is nothing to dread
To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.
Now hear the death bells in the graveyard ring
As you lay in your comfy coffin bed
listening to blood-songs vampires sing
Look how the slimy worms around you cling
Busy little worms waiting to be fed.
To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.
Come, weir wolfs, and goblins are beckoning
Come, dance the macabre the moon is red
Dance to the requiem’s vampires sing
And rise from tombstone as the bats take wing
Come and shout, “Boo!” to the owl overhead.
To be a ghost is a marvelous thing.
And dance macabre as the vampires sing
- Frank Murphy
No Fighting, Please
They were coming on strong Peanut butter And Jelly.
They had a fight In someone’s belly.
They said bad things to one another
“You’re smelly Jelly, said Peanut Butter
“You’re a flea butt Nutter.” Said Jelly in the belly.
“Now stop this row.” Said a piece of bread
Stop it now or he’ll eat tuna fish instead of
Peanut butter and jelly because no one wants
a fight going on it their belly.
No one wants a fight going on in their belly”
- Frank Murphy
Corrections
In my poem: Antidisestablishmentarianism,
the following words were spelled incorrectly:
rabbit, poltergeist.
In my Sonnet: To a Norwegian Basketball, the line,
“Should have been born a banana,”
should read, “Should or could have been born a
peeled banana —also the words,
fiscal responsibility, belong to another poem.
Finally, in my poem:
The Only Reliable Babysitter On Clinton Street, a line in the poem
misidentifies the innocent bystander holding
the Book of the Dead in one hand and a hoagie sandwich
in the other
while four men in bikini mask ran from
the department of Motor Vehicles
shouting curses in ancient Etruscan as James Joyce.
It was actually, Henry James.
- Frank Murphy
May 28th
On this day in history Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat
was published and Mr. X sat in the automat
drinking coffee
and everyone wore hats.
Jim Thorpe was born, fire was invented and Mrs. Y
wondered why the subway was so crowded.
On this day in history The Duke of Windsor died,
the first lie was told by a politician,
a king burped, the 1st indoor swimming pool opened,
and four sisters
got stuck in an elevator.
On this day in history four pounds of Brussels sprouts
were eaten, the wheel invented, the big bang banged
and Severinus began his reign as
Catholic Pope, and said nope in Latin twenty seven times.
And on this day in history, Fire in Cincinnati nearly
destroyed the Reds’ grandstand,
bread was baked for the first time,
writing invented, and Mars began drying up.
Fred Landry (aboard The Parader) won the 26th Preakness,
Margaret Truman played the piano for the first time
to her father…
and
this was the day the Attorney General said
it was legal for women to wear trousers anywhere,
the 1st night game was played at Washington DC’s,
Griffith Stadium (Yankees 6, Senators 5) and
Thales Miletus predicted a solar eclipse,
and Rockefeller sang “John Henry”
oh yeah, and Morse sent the first
telegraph message and
this was the day the first joke was told,
the missionary position invented,
the first fish crawled onto land and
Chrysler Corporation merged with
Dodge Brothers, Inc.
On this day in history Elvis Presley performed
live in Fort Worth, TX.
The U.S. sent 400 Stinger missiles to Saudi Arabia,
toilets were invented, the first song sung, the first
handshake shook, and Ian Fleming was born.
On this day in history GOD was born,
art was created, a dinosaur got
sick, it rained, snowed, the sun shined and
hats were invented — and later.
everyone wore them.
- Frank Murphy