My good companions
and dear friends, each life portends
hope for lessons learned
from our democratic
rule schooled from empathetic
sincerity that
seeks clarity from diverse
viewpoints equally.
The words we say must display
internal consistency
as well as being
true to external actions
which dispel deceits.
As always, I’m honored and
overjoyed to be employed
in your company.
Form Grace and myself, we thank
all of you for frank
opinions expressed in your
harmonious dominion
nurturing confessed
beliefs spawning relief from
competitions ills.
We’ve been working hard since lunch.
Now it’s time for fine feasting
and celebrating.
I know there are those who go
to Cal’s to revive
and thrive in game playing with
his tasty, safe libations.
Thus, we must now bow
and bid all to fair well ’til
next we meet and greet.
Grace, I need to be the last
to lockup and leave, so tell
Shey we will expel
our gnawing hunger at
Cal’s establishment.
His fish and chips are on me.
It’s my treat to deplete those
remaining questions
that arose while others
spoke that might provoke
strong refutation without
your opposing oration.
[Grace]
Shey, I am away
with Marlene once she locks up.
We will sup at Cal’s.
[Shey]
Fine. I’m heading there myself.
We’ll regroup there to share his
fine fare’s ambience.
[Marlene]
Hi Cal, any backroom clear?
[Cal]
Yep, by the kitchen.
[Marlene]
May we have two, fires and deep
fried flounder-dinners, with slaw,
if you please, while
we withdraw to the room to
recall the rich boon
of fresh info soon to be
consumed with your sapid fare.
[Cal]
What about your drinks?
[Grace]
What do you think? Shey’s smoothies.
My tab, I’ll pay.
[Marlene]
We will speak and eat here, then
veer into the tavern’s cheer
with games and gay songs
that belong to peers leaving
concerns to adjourn
before jocularity
takes supreme priority.
I join my three coins
in a line as a sign that
I’m committed to
all the precepts and concepts
flown throughout all gatherings,
as you have witnessed.
Note: the line reads left to right
from Joe’s Honor coin
to enshrine all three symbols
as being the foundation
upon which I speak.
Note that line is parallel
between you and me
with each coin tweaked to face you.
Having done so, you know that
I’m bound by what’s found
in plain sight for all to see.
If you, too, carried
all three, you would ferry yours
to mirror mine and thus shine
such enlightenment.
The American Natives’
culture gives the same
value by smoking a pipe
to certify they spoke true.
Then there is the oath
taken, hand on holy book,
to forsaken lies.
Yet a truth or a lie is
devised based upon a choice
after conscious minds
voice the outcome they surmised
from each chosen path.
Belief, faith and trust must be
calculated in the math
of one’s certainty.
Clairvoyancy is a poor
remedy to cure
Othello from Iago
because deceitfulness flows
throughout Iago’s
sinister plan that expands
into treachery.