‘Tempus Fugit, Carpe Diem, Memento Mori’ and Other Poems by C.B. Anderson

Tempus Fugit, Carpe Diem,
Memento Mori

Sed fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus.—Virgil, Georgics

There comes a time in every errant life
When pleasures of the flesh are not enough,
And vivid dreams about a neighbor’s wife
Seem pale compared to all the other stuff
Imagined. Learning ancient Greek is one;
Another is to sit astride a whale;
A third might be a simple kindness done,
Which we’ll remember when we’re old and frail.

So while we’re still regarded trim and spry,
Why not behave as though the day had come
When we were told that we would shortly die?
The games we play are never zero-sum,
And it’s a shame how much there is to lose
For those who weigh the odds but fail to choose.

Tempus Fugit, Carpe Diem, Memento Mori: Latin: Time is fleeting, seize the day, remember death

Nature vs. Nurture

When children seem, at best, grotesque distortions
Of deformities their parents passed along,
Genetics and euthenics both have failed,
For each has had its say in equal portions.
Faith demands that we believe: If one went wrong,
The one gone right would then have countervailed.

Pennies on the Dollar

Laconic stars stand vigil on the nights
When everything that matters falls apart.
Resumption of the old ongoing fight
Eviscerates bright hope and takes the heart

Out of the effort pledged to aid the cause
Of reconciliation. Trust is slain
When lovers try evading hallowed laws
They signed in blood, and many grades of pain

Accompany new vows too soon endorsed;
The signatories eagerly renege,
And few among the recently divorced,
If granted second chances, kneel and beg

To be united once again. What’s lost
Is lost; grieved parties might as well move on,
For wishes buy no more than coinage tossed
In wells drained dry to raise a greener lawn.

The fixed and constant stars on high lie low,
Too reticent to broadcast what they’re thinking,
And make it hard for supplicants to know
Which way is up. While options keep on shrinking,
The provident abandon schemes for linking
Their fates to pardons silent lights bestow.

C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden.  Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India.  His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.