As we shared a whiskey flask

My love took me to task

To mount an expedition

Beyond my wildest hope

A mission fraught with danger-

To save a man in a boat

She said I'd know his oilskins

By now quite slick and wet

And the shiny Sou'Wester rain hat

That sloped to protect his neck

She said that in the tempest

His hat might tend toward red...

I grabbed my oars and hunkered down

For nothing more be said

Against the tide as one we rowed

Tossed by growing swells

Faced with death, our sense grew sharp

With heightened taste and smell

As violent ocean ebbed and flowed,

With skill its hills we rode

"Put yer back in it,"

At one point, I heard the sailor cry

As the ocean roiled and tossed amid

Our frantic groans and sighs

We worked our aching bodies

Beyond what one should ask

Fighting 'gainst the rising storm

The mighty waves did crash

Till ocean calm returned once more

For me and my paramour-

Spent by the adventure

That we two had braved

A time of chase and glory

Forever we would note

The tale of how

That night I saved

A little man in a boat...

-DeRicki

My concern drops soft

Against your gentle cough

So frail in my embrace

We lie in bed of secrets laced

In and out of sleep so deep

Chased by hungry thoughts

That creep and seep

And gnaw the edge of soul in feast

Bulwark against foul demon's chase

In this space I'll make you safe

My princess chaste

My drug

My waif

I play the hero, armored in kind pledge

We fall away from ocean's edge

I claim right of diver's salvage

Our need whelmed in bodies savaged

We lie in tangled trust

My comely Succubus

At your carnal throne I kneel

Haunted by dark lusts unsealed

I run my fingers along your scars

A little sad, a little angry, a little hard-

Confused by dark emotions' brace

Pushed by twisted passion's chase

Bound by your perverse bequest

My hands 'round your neck

We slew and teeter at the cusp

Succumbing to small deaths

No saving grace for likes of us

Truth a tarnished gilt

Upon our wicked borrow

We give the monster leash

Foul imprecations muttered

In horror's grip, we come and shudder

Loath to loose my hero's claim

But in truth, we are the same

Just two Maker's broken toys

Fallen little girl and boy

No spoils to claim

No one to blame

As hero's mantle falls away

I sigh in lost illusions' sway

Hold you close-

As one

We peel

The waxing day

-DeRicki

Since when did truths

Become alternative?

Ain't that a fine "howda ya do"

And what about the words we speak

Do their meanings

Come in "alternative," too?

As in "up" is "down" and "in" is "out"

And good old "red" is "blue?"

It defeats the purpose of language

In which case you'd never know,

"I'm huntry en I liken peas

A dishes dainty sang witch..."

In this alternative universe

Our Earth is flat

The new thin is fat

And racists never lynched blacks

If that foolishness ain't enough

Here's an interesting fact-

According to our government,

Dixie's slaves were immigrants!

This is not right

Just stop it please

Alternative facts?

There's no such thing...

(Unlike Bigfoot

Or that girl from "Ring")

Fiction is fiction

Fact is fact

And never the twain

Shall be the same

If someone tells you

Otherwise-

They're playing

The "mind fuck" game...

-DeRicki

Our sun's bounty ended

The Horsemen all went home

They had no need

To end the world-

We did it on our own...

-DeRicki

Neither

Earth Wind Fire nor Water

Have ever oppressed me

Neither have they lied

Nor plotted

That

I

Not be free

Oh, but the wicked

Hand of Man

Hides evil

In its lee

-DeRicki

"Vive Immaturity"

My good friend Flipstork said

So I went to my friend's wedding

In a giant panda head

The Groom no doubt now regrets

Having me as his "Best Man"

Perhaps my congrats went too far-

When I "joy-buzzed" Bride's Dad's hand

Roach on the plate

A Bridesmaid bang

Fake vomit on the cake

Misjudged the Groom's ability

To take my little jokes

Or maybe I did overreach

With my prodding and my pokes

Because of their reactions

I now regret it all

But it's too late

The angry Groom

Will not return my calls

To follow good friend

Flipstork's lead?

It was a grave mistake-

My Mother

Just rescinded

The invite

To my Aunt's wake...

-DeRicki.

Her lips

Her eyes

Her luscious form

You stole them

From my arms

Oh thief of hearts

Such liar art

Your mayhem

Caused me harm-

And so I sit here broken

Rejected and forlorn...

-DeRicki

The toxins in blowfish

Are frankly outrageous

It's not a good time to be

Ichthyophagous

This adventure in sushi

Is over my friend

Better this dinner

Than my life

To end...

DeRicki

I drink a cocktail of moonlight

It makes my gut feel tight

Loathe to rage or fuck or fight

I surrender to the night

In a quiet clearing

Lit by Luna's light

I build a meager fire

To lessen Dark's cold bite

I stare upon the heavens

And contemplate my life

All the people I have known

The ones I've loved and lost

The truths that I've held dear

And tossed

The battles I have fought

For reasons now exiguous

So frivolous in thought

That's when it occurs to me

That to live

Comes at a cost...

-DeRicki

I had to reach the pinnacle

My intentions quite rabbinical

So I rode a road up a mountainside

I braved the rocky roads on my yellow Vespa

My headphones blasted Moody Blues

I think it was their "Best Of..."

My scooter got a flat

'Cause the mountain's rocks were sharp

But I was on a mission - my purpose not some lark

I sought the Ten Commandments,

Or maybe Noah's Ark

And so I climbed with gusto

Rising higher without stop

I was disappointed

When I reached the top

Because I found not one

Of the relics that I seek

I looked into the distance

To see them on a nearby peak

I stomped my feet in anger, feeling like a sap

Should've paid more than 50 cents for my map

I stomped my feet so hard

That I went and sealed my fate

Now I fall flailing - aiming for a mountain lake

-DeRicki