The Beard is Gone

The Beard is gone. Long live the Beard. And, I’ve felt naked all day long. But, just but, I’ve this feeling the Beard will return, reincarnated in some form (perhaps as a goatee?). The face calls for it, and I think I can hear the Beard respond.
This grand experiment, like prohibition, methinks, has gone a-rye. The good-old-boys, who fain would be drinking, are, instead, seeking their razors for to hide. And they be rye-less, and some, whiskerless. But some mothers and some sweethearts weep, as Rachel, for faces obscured by obscurantist puns. And they weep too, for men fled to the Egypt of the hunting camp, where whiskers wear well with womanish warrants wax weak, whining wistfully, windborne, whimsical and most certainly out of bounds. Yes, the freedom train breaks for beards, though tickets are required. The currency is rare, and the exchange rate steep enough to frighten even the most seasoned investment banker. But some pay it. Some pay it. And some wish they had. But others find the Beard itself to be currency of worth and think, laughingly, chuckling, of their comrades of old in Egypt, cold and bathless, while his arm slips softly asleep ‘neath the shoulder of she who holds the warrant on his beard. He chuckles and follows his arm to lovely dreams.

Different Kinds of Hell

One night I wandered, dreaming
And stumbled into Dante's hell
suffering AMDG*
"God wills it" writ on every face

Next came I to Hades plain
Elysium's citizens call
"Are we remembered by you?
"What of immortal Achilles?"

And through the frozen north
I shivered my way to Hell's courts
Her grasp lets not one escape
No, not yet beloved Baldr

I could not find dark She'ol
Nor could its Shades direct me there
Rustling restless in the night
Never more knowing anything

But Atheists slept softly
Oblivious to their neighbors
Adventists, too, were silent
And are eternally extinct

*AMDG: ad majorem dei gloriam. Means "to/for the greater glory of god". Jesuit motto. For the record, I have tremendous respect for the society of Jesus. AMDG was convenient to use here and its use is not in any way meant to be disparaging toward the order.

Jazz Suite Waltz

Here we recline among the stars
Bloodbrothers to mighty sun
Thoughtfully watch a waltz unfold
Shostakovich comes to mind

The stars like jazz, admire improv
They ask Gershwin for a tune
Come-all-you to the great dancehall
Sing and whirl the 'verse away

We are dancing with the novas
Waltzing with spiraling twins
Violent and careless partners
Swing each other frenzied round

Stellar arthritis settles in
Movement is softly slowing
As participants take their rest
Cosmic hypothermia