This Spring May 2017© Tony Fallon

This Spring May 2017© Tony Fallon

This spring in New York we've had snow and rain

Weeds and wildflowers and crocuses cover the terrain

The grass is getting longer and the tractor will not start

I've spent days working on it and it nearly broke my heart

Before I put the key in the ignition I put air in the tires

And used my compressor to blow dust off the wires

I checked all the belts and not even one was frayed

And because one was bent I changed the outside blade

I also checked for bare or worn wires in great detail

Making sure in the future the wires wouldn't spark or fail

I've changed the plug and cleaned out the carburetor

And I may have called it names that insulted my creator

I emptied out the tank no one can call me a miser

And filled it with high test gas then added stabilizer

I charged up the battery checked the points and coil

And when I pulled out the dipstick it says it's full of oil

I turned the key so often the battery did discharge

So now I'm using the one from my car which is large

When dealing with batteries you must use protections

And make sure the cables make the right connections

When using starting fluid great caution is required

I must have put too much in and the bloody thing backfired.

It only burned the hair on my hand and singed my shirt

I used no more starting fluid and from then on was alert

Well I gave up on the tractor and got my Weed Whacker

And cut an awful amount of grass by God it is no slacker,

Teen age Romance © Tony Fallon 050718.

Teen age Romance © Tony Fallon 050718.

When I was a teenager I had so many crushes

If I mentioned all the names there would be many blushes

One day it was a redhead or the next day a blond

Many a one I had an eye on wound up across the pond

While some are now dead others are happily wed

So if I mentioned some names here I might wind up dead

There were beautiful girls in the convent of the Sacred Heart

But the nuns said stay away from boys if you are smart

Those were often stressful days of imagined romance

And the sinful “bad thoughts “going to a week end dance

With girls so conditioned before they came in the door

Many of us young fellows were afraid to cross the floor

I remember Peggy Boylan who married Paddy Dunne

And Mary Mc Cathy who went away and became a nun

Lorraine was a red head with freckles a real, real beauty

She was the shopkeeper daughter and a little bit snooty

 Me and all the others boys loved Mary Coffey’s figure

She fell in love with chocolate she’s two hundred pounds or bigger

I remember Mary fondly even though she was a tease

When she wore a mini skirt you could see way above her knees

To get us boys excited seemed to be a well thought out plan

And there was no better one than Mike Jones’s daughter Maryanne

All were hoping to take her home and at least being kissed

And the memories still linger of her out there doing the twist

The prettiest girl and the guy with a car quickly made connection

With a bicycle you had no chance if she livid in the other direction

If a girl was from your old school she expected a dance invitation

And even if either of you were shy you could have a conversation

That’s why neighbors fell for neighbors as at church they kneeled

And turned into great romances without going too far afield

When I think of me as a teenager and the girls that declined

I also remember fondly some very pretty girls I left behind

The real and imagine romances of my teens all came to naught

And I too had to cross the pond to New York before I got caught

Feelings © Tony Fallon 050618

Feelings © Tony Fallon 050618

If I could put my feelings in a bottle and put the lid on tight

I think I’d be much better off in the future than I am tonight

How can my brain have feelings when my heart feels so forsaken?

Awake I do not want to go to sleep in the morning I dread to awaken

When I do wake up amidst bad feelings and depressing moods

I have no desire for companionship and no desires for foods

Only a few short months ago I was taking the world in stride

You were here then and all I had was love and happiness inside

 I could hide the bottle in the cabinet or the refrigerator

Then I could ignore the heart break and sorrow until much later

If the bottle should break from pressure all the shards would scatter

The feelings would escape and my heart would once more shatter

So if my feelings are outside my body my heart could then be thawed

And I could start to live normally like it was the middle of the road

And not be moping here at home in a life that’s almost monastic

And so there’s no broken glass on the floor use a bottle made of plastic

The Derby.5518

The Derby. May 5 2018


The Kentucky Derby is run today
In Kentucky State that's far away
Unlike the National there are no jumps
Unlike ball games no referee or umps
A mad dash of a mile and a quarter
Once released from the gate by the starter
All twenty numerically arranged
The winner's life radically changed
The jockey will have many poses
The owner surely comes up roses.
Will it be a chestnut or a bay?
Becomes champion in the month of May
Will it be a Kentucky winners son?
Or will a rank outside be the ONE?

Cutting no grass© Tony Fallon050218

Cutting no grass© Tony Fallon050218

Yesterday I saw a guy on a tractor a wee bit of an ass

Showing off to his neighbors just wasting gas

There weren’t even weeds to cut certainly no grass

But he just wants us all to know his tractor is first class

For all the money he spent you could buy a nice used car

And people come to take pictures from both near and far

It is a bright red color with banners bunting and flags

The wheels had to be made specially they are aluminum mags

He built a great big modern garage with air conditioning and heat

He keeps the tractor there all year and his car on the public street

The wife is against this craziness and makes known that she opposes

She says if he had a girl friend out of guilt he might buy her roses

He has a big trailer to take the tractor to show at all the local fairs

Meanwhile his house is falling down and desperately need repairs

You can see him in the papers with the wife the tractor and a cup

And you can tell by the look on her face she wants to blow it up

There’s a plastic thing on wheels behind the tractor he says it’s a catcher

He could do with one half the size but this man wants local stature

He acts the part of a big farmer but we on the block call him a faker

He’s just the same as all us others he owns a little more than half an acre 

The pessimist © Tony Fallon 050118

The pessimist © Tony Fallon 050118

I never see the bright side I guess that's pessimism
That's because I talked to someone who is into evangelism
Most of their preaching does not agree with Catholicism
And I don't believe they ever read an Irish catechism

If you don't believe in God you are accused of atheism
If you should not believe in creation that is cynicism
If you don't think you or I exist that's called nihilism
With all those bad vibes around how can I have any optimism?

I think this is a good topic for people in journalism
But be careful what you say you do not want criticism
You don't want to be accused of left leaning liberalism
Or being the puppet of those who practice communism

If you give the job to someone you know that is favoritism
If you give the job to a relative that is nepotism
If you copy this remember I favor protectionism
And I'll sue your a## off in the world court for plagiarism

Spring © Tony Fallon 043018

Spring © Tony Fallon 043018

It’s over a year ago since I remember spring

A young lad was in the park with a kite on a string

I said you go and get your brother’s fishing rod

And we’ll sent the kite up so high almost to God

He looked at me quizzically and asked “are you a nerd?”

I didn’t know a five year old would know such a word

He had that vacant look about him maybe he was ill

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was on some kind of pill

To stay anywhere near this wild lad could be a big mistake

So I walked on over to watch two loving swans on the lake

There were bunches of crocuses and a lot of daffodils

On the banks of the lake, fed by fresh water from the hills.

I saw a rabbit hop across the field followed by his pal

And two male thrushes fighting trying to impress some gal

The bee the bat the butterfly were nowhere to be seen

It rained the night before so the grass was getting green

There were pigeons cooing and there was at least one seagull

And a few pair of geese from Canada they probably were illegal

The weather certainly was better last year and not as severe

As the cold we’ve had already for four months of this year.

There is still great hope up here that the sun will reappear

And that we finally will get a spring before summer this year

With seeds I am waiting my bare garden to transform

I don’t need more cold weather just days that are warm.