[Martin Elster]

Octopus’s Garden
(Beatles song in the style of Robert Frost)

Whose plot this is beneath the sea,
I think I know. He lives as free
as fish and whales. A mollusk owns
this garden. Buddy, come with me.

It’s snug enough to warm our bones
below the storm, where no one moans
or tells us what we ought to do.
Nobody here needs chaperones.

A sea horse might come into view
and shake his head, ask, “Who are you?”
We’d swim and shout and sing and dance.
Beneath the sea I’d be with you.

What joy for boy and girl to glance
at all the octopus’s plants.
They might just put us in a trance.
They might just put us in a trance.

[Martin Elster]

This one's pretty silly, but ...

Trapped

Whose house I’m in? Well, it’s my friend’s,
who’s now at work where a pick tends
to patients’ teeth. She will not see
me sitting here with pad and pens.

I can’t get out the door (poor me)
because I do not have a key
and cannot leave with the door open.
I feel like a skiff adrift at sea.

I just was in the shower soapin’
myself, but now I sit here hopin’
that soon my friend will come back here—
for all I’m doing now is mopin’.

Her house is lovely, full of cheer
but I have to go out for beer,
and hours to go before she’s near,
and hours to go before she’s near.