Attitude Adjustment

I recently took a trip back to the town where I was raised. My brother's once country acreage is now an Amazon Fulfillment Center on the edge of an ever expanding city.

Attitude Adjustment

As a kid the comics came first

although they hung out in back.

Now I save them for last after plowing

through stories of war in Ukraine

and the latest mass shooting.

My brother, the firstborn, sported

an easygoing attitude while I, the final

child, carried the albatross of seriousness.

A mix-up by the birthing genie

leading my sib to overnight shifts, freeing

his days for more appealing pursuits like

bowhunting, studying biomes and birds,

romping with his dogs. Hard news drew

me, he scrapped the daily paper. I formed

a few strong friendships, he had scores.

A host of them celebrated his life

as he, in a sweatshirt grown baggy, held

court under July skies.

The carefree have always had it right:

eat dessert first, the Good Humor Man

lives, and start with the funnies

even when blinders blur the words.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor  

If Machiavelli Were a Musician

Here is another in my series of historical people in different occupations than for what they are remembered. 

If Machiavelli Were a Musician

                           after Carl Tomlinson

If Machiavelli were a musician

he would have held first chair

in the violins, tuning all the string

sections to his timbre preconcert

before sitting and interpreting

the score with the orchestra under

the eyes of the maestro, sometimes

bowing the melody alone before fading

into the background, but always

controlling the other instrumentalists

with his tempo, and never once

forgetting to applaud the conductor

after a performance.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor