heel to toe ("till the days of blogging") [villanelle / elegy]

We may not be kind
but we are enough.
We may not be strong, but
we pretend.
The mind is grey, a blend
of all colors.
mind over matter: I will line up
several pairs of shoes, heel
to toe. I will follow
their procession.

Lynne Beyer
in The Cheap Review Of Poetry #1 (1986)

Why didn't you stick around till the days of blogging?
I'd daily be checking the news at Beyer-dot-blogspot
but I won't submit you now to postmortal flogging

ten years has it been? does a decade thin out the fogging?
have you found release in light? or some shady grog spot?
why didn't you linger a spell   till the days of blogging?

in Christian realms is there annual egg-nogging?
do Judaic & Islamic kin fear a Gog & Magog spot?
but let's not submit you now to belated flogging

I'll head some moon back to LA   the land of smogging
though I laze through the years   I'll find afresh some jog spot
why didn't you stay?   so close to the days of blogging!

true enough   the pipes of hope are prone to clogging
and we tend to sink when we hit the proverbial bog spot
no I'd not submit you to any belated flogging

from life to lifetime   sheaves of narrative logging!
all the poems (with sources) revert to the secret tug spot
it's a pity you didn't stay put till the days of blogging
but I pray you're past all weary dreams of flogging



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in memory of Lynne Beyer