When I am driving with the wife,
Roadmaps do not occasion strife.
Her instinct tells my spouse the way,
And instructs me to obey.
by Ray Romine Sunday, August 27, 1950
Category: Poems
Ray Romine Poems
Free Verse (untitled)
The week has all but gone, and I
Have not been worthy of my salt;
I’ve done no work, but if they pay
Mailmen who rest, that’s not my fault
by Ray Romine Friday, November 5, 1943
Free Speech
A husband finds this has some catches.
Uh, he may speak, but it’s occurred
To him that, in domestic matches,
He isn’t promised he’ll be heard
by Ray Romine Wednesday, March 26, 1952
Free (?) Thinker
Money isn’t everything-
Everybody knows it,
So long as we’re excepting
The guy to whom one owes it.
by Ray Romine Friday, May 19, 1950
Fraud
Flat down in the grass I lie,
Taking in the patterned sky,
Letting sunlight through the trees
Chase away my memories;
Hearing, as he blindly comes,
How the striped invader hums:
Poised above a flower, he
Pretends he is the Busy Bee,
But to me his lazy hover
Denotes another nature-lover!
by Ray Romine Monday, May 12, 1952
Fraternal
This month, I think if I were one foot taller,
And stood on tiptoe, I could touch the stars–
The friendly jewels of June, that flowered caller
Who hides so well the last of winter’s scars.
Her beauty shines a far cry from sedately;
She stands out merrily against the midnight black.
And though the year ’round stars entrance me greatly,
The gems of June seem always to smile back.
by Ray Romine Sunday, December 9, 1951
Frankenstein With Picture Tube
Behold our Television Set,
A wonderful invention. Yet,
It has become a way of life
Competing, even, with the wife.
I think what is pictorial
Might be less dictatorial.
by Ray Romine Sunday, January 7, 1951
Frank You: You’re Welcome!
I like my friends outspoken–
At least, I’m sure I do
So long as their silence is broken
To talk, not of me, but of you!
by Ray Romine Wednesday, September 1, 1943
Fragment
A touch of sunlight on a maple-tree
One autumn morning, made that day for me
A day remembered . “There’ll be other thrills
Today,” I promised, and, among the hills,
No doubt there were some colored sights that would
Have set me off enraptured , if I could
Have seen them, but my load that day was such
It kept my nose against the ground, in touch
With mundane matters one must recognize
Or starve.
The dollar made that day now lies
In someone else’s pocket. He may keep
It there. My share was one I still can reap:
To this day I can close my eyes and see
That touch of sunlight on the maple-tree.
by Ray Romine Friday, October 4, 1946
Foundation
When the house that I live in has fallen away
To the dust and the rubble of utter decay,
Just the few careless words that escape me today–
Will they matter?
But the homes of all those who come later will rest
Upon present designs that have weathered a test;
So my talk is a basis, and should be the best–
It could matter.
by Ray Romine Thursday, September 19, 1946