The only trouble with relaxing:
Too much of it proves overtaxing.
by Ray Romine Saturday, July 14, 1951
Category: Poems
Ray Romine Poems
Street-corner Soliloquy
I cruise; I slow;
I re-embark–
The streets I know
Are those they mark.
by Ray Romine Wednesday, April 11, 1951
Street Scene
That well-trained tots will not disturb
The street is axiomatic;
But MUST their ball roll off the kerb
When father’s in the attic?
8-9- 49b
OR this version:
Beset by adJective and verb,
The kiddies, wiser, sadder,
Avoid the street, and won’t disturb
The cars. What makes one madder:
MUST their ball roll off the kerb
When daddy’s on the ladder??
8-9-49b
by Ray Romine Tuesday, August 9, 1949
Street Scene
Junior’s doodling caper,
New, entranced us all;
What a shame his paper
Had to be the wall.
He relieved the tedium,
Artistic urge obeyin’.
Too bad his favorite medium
Happened to be crayon.
When his deviations
Took to pen-and-ink,
He had some new creations
Underneath the sink.
Now, curb-stones in our city
Are gay, bedecked and smart:
That landlord, what a pity
He had no eye for art!
by Ray Romine Sunday, October 10, 1948
Street of Life
Down a wind-blown avenue
Where the dreams of childhood grew,
And grew, to huge proportions
From the little that we knew,
How our hearts then soared and sang!
How we let our cares go hang
And roared and whooped and rioted
And brought up with a bang
Sick against the street’s big trees,
With responsibilities,
Married, worried, harried, hurried,
Unprepared for grim unease.
Still we staggered, with our load,
Smiling at the spur and goad,
Nor looked too wholly envious
At those who flew the road.
Then, at last, a turn-off street,
Down a gala, rose-strewn street,
We laugh, and trip unburdened
Where old age and childhood meet…
by Ray Romine Sunday, March 12, 1950
Strayed
I heard him blame his conscience,
But his conscience didn’t err:
He just failed to watch the roadsigns
That take a man Somewhere !
by Ray Romine Thursday, October 17, 1946
Strayed
I heard him blame his conscience,
But his conscience didn’t err:
He just failed to watch the roadsigns
That take a man Somewhere!
by Ray Romine Thursday, October 17, 1946
Stratosphere Nose
Please, dear friends, I ask, don’t burn
If at your Hi I do not turn.
I shall today collect some glances
Filled with questions and askances.
I’m sorry if I seem high-hatty,
Proud or uppity or catty.
Would you still call me stiff-necked if
You knew my neck were REALLY stiff?
by Ray Romine Monday, January 29, 1951
Strangers
I thought I’d surely recognize
The truth when I should hear it.
I didn’t. Because, I surmise,
I am so seldom near it.
Unfamiliarity
Thus breeds its own contempt for me …
by Ray Romine Wednesday, August 8, 1951
Strange Dromedary
This creature is the dromedary,
A kind of swaying dry-land ferry;
That single hump upon his back
Has laid him wide lor quip and crack.
He does not choose to crack or quip,
But chews instead upon his lip.
Zoologically no bloomin’ ant,
He is a rheumy ruminant.
I think it’s cute the way he rates
On dates…
by Ray Romine Thursday, July 22, 1948