XYZ

Our genome differs from the chimp
By one point two percent,
The Y, I’m told, though but a shrimp,
Adds two in complement.
One female X is held in check
So Ys give men the more—
And though it seems but just a speck,
These genes we can’t ignore.
This clarifies a fact of life
One scarcely can escape:
I hold less common with my wife
Than she does with an ape.
Though one may argue, or abstain
From such an arcane thought,
Since we stood upright on the plain—
The stranger she has got.
© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 344

A living memory in a dying art
A message in a bottle tossed to sea,
A simple wish upon a falling star
A hope on hope that shall not come to be.
Such is the passage of the mortal soul,
A traveler from and to, yet never there;
All worthy toil but for some nameless goal,
A destiny unsure—yet ever…where?
Alone upon that solipsistic plain
Doubting reason, trusting not the mind,
Ethereal essence not of heart or brain
Clear of a purpose not quite yet defined;
A dance of particles on solar winds…
Or wandering children of Elysium?

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 343

He left you scorned and now you come to me,
What value could I possibly yet hold?
You knew me first; no interest did you see;
No spark of interest—so I once was told.
It’s true I did not force a play for love
But sensed that on pure kindness it might grow,
I chose my distance, banked on stars above
To guide a course that only fate may know.
I see you here in much a different light—
You did not want me then and do not now;
My role set but to stay a tear in flight
That it not splash and stain your lacy gown;
Playing the nursemaid, summoned to ease pain—
No love to lose—and surely, none to gain.
© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 342

Here stands before us fearsome mighty Time,
Serrated blade still dripping red with blood;
Defiant, dark, delighting in cruel crimes,
Bellicose, bleak, belligerent and proud.
Debasing dreams of immortality—
Though acolytes in fervent prayer protest;
Behind him swards of black finality
That mocks the very hope of heaven’s rest.
What power do we hold against such force?
What heart of flesh could ever make a stand?
Must mortals bow as slaves to forgone course—
What action here might stay his cruel hand?
From leveled fields, his joy in carnage fed,
He laughs as children wail among the dead.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 341

As passion flows into this silent ink
Etched deep on parchment, sentiments confined.
Where cursive strokes through faithful passions link
Sweet musings of the heart to thoughts in mind;
So may such truth here rendered bless this verse
That years from now these lines I may still read,
And in reciting, memories rehearse…
The mystic gardens where true love stays green.
If not transcribed, what ledger could I keep
When recollection stands but sure to fail?
In memory’s vault, false visions often creep,
For Time corrupts, to wear truth thin and frail.
Yet ardor, poorly inked by loving hand—
Still bests the finest ever writ in sand.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 340

The curtain rises at the break of day,
Sweet feathered chorus rousing to the call,
An April morning, sullen, cold, and grey
With still an air of spring to hearts enthrall;
Another scented summer stands in wait
For spring, still in her peignoir, pink and blue,
To drift to sleep until drab winter’s prate
Wakes her again when his next reign is through.
Thespians of the solstice come and go,
Their soliloquies commissioned by the sun
Who orchestrate the tempo and the flow
Of every act until each play is done.
Here I, glad patron of this living art
Behold with eyes what best is held by heart.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 339

A plague has now descended on the land
To steal the breath of many it corrupts,
So questioned as an act of god or man,
From whence or where—all souls to feel its touch.
A dread contagion Ramses may have feared,
As unseen vapors floated in thin air;
That would have made him don his postiche beard
As he sought councel begging Heka’s care.
But here no mastery sways this new day scourge,
Damned devil from an unknown lab unchained,
A sinister stratagem from which emerged
A Frankenstein that ravaged, uncontained.
A pestilence beyond sheer vile disease—
An evil that brought Earth unto her knees.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 338

Love is a paradox of ice and flame
That can both warm or freeze a heart in kind,
As fickle yellow suns will wax and wane
To paint by season, changing jots of time.
White snows of winter make us dream of June
And pray green springtide melts away all snow,
But scarlet August and its hothouse moons
Soon make us wish for golden autumn’s glow.
So can the human heart transmute with time
And pied in purpose, dance both warm and cold,
One moment pink of smiles and joys sublime,
The next a frigid frown blue, brash and bold.
From frosted mornings on to sultry nights—
Hued thermal contradictions give love spice.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Sonnet 337

This was not writ to win of love or like
But here in words sweet passion to implore,
That you might see me in a poet’s light
As I in ranting rhyme, my soul out pour;
So here in wanting lines these thoughts I spill,
Full lacking both in ardor and in form
As if some fool had found a tattered quill
To scratch out runes that might a dullard bore.
Where eyes lack wonder, what to seek in praise
That might ignite some semblance of desire,
And through such musings, spark some stirring phrase
To unmask coyness and dear heart inspire?
I am aware this sonnet seems a sham,
Yet smile in ink——I write therefore I am.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.

Killing Time

I have always been running from time
From before I was born —
After I die it won’t change
I hide from him but he always finds me
Melting my face
Weakening my bones
Painting my sable mustache grey
I wish he would leave me alone
There are greater men to haunt than me.
When I do nothing
They say I am killing time
But he does not die
I do nothing all the time
And still he thrives
Rusting the wheelbarrow
Peeling the paint off the gate
Wilting the lilies
Turning babies into old men
Pure mischief.
He should find something else to do
Like turn the sun purple
Or erase the pock marks from the moon
Make Betelgeuse a supernova
Convert the ocean into soda pop
And Antarctica to ice cream…
Maybe just give us a break for a while
Say a hundred years or so
Where things might stay the same.
Do it in summer time
Or in the fall when all the leaves are golden
Nothing ages
All things chilling
No one’s time runs out
No deadlines
No time sensitive obligations
Each day the sun rises and sets
And it only rains at night
We would have the time of our lives—
This time is killing me.

© Loubert S Suddaby. All Rights Reserved.