Exercises in Song

#17: Official letter

Dear sir, I write to complain.
No wonder our city still declines!
Unless a tourist has a map, he's bound to get lost:
We require, in short, more signs!

With them, they'd find the tours
And the cafés, pubs and stores,
And they wouldn't have to keep asking me!
(Most deferentially yours....)

#13: Probabilistic

Odds that one's wishes for rest
And places to rest in coincide,
Where sleepiness is caused by drinking far from one's house—
Such a chance, in truth, is slight.

I make it one in three
That I'll find land, foam or sea.
But your list'ning to this song is, by now,
Something of a certainty!

#19: Spectral

Long after yonder inn closed,
The quiet was shattered by a groan!
A ghostly figure, head in hands, appeared to me,
Crying: "show me the way home!"

This fearful, tortured shade
Finally began to fade,
Calling "rest! At last!" as he disappeared,
Right where his bones had been laid.

#25: A Christmas Carol

Bah! Humbug! What do I care
About those in need, or just poor?
I make my way back home, but then I notice with fear:
Jacob's head upon my door!

The ghosts of yuletides gone,
Of today's, and those to come
Then unfreeze my wicked, miserly heart:
God bless us, every one!

#10: The subjective side

Show him the way to go home;
I'm tired and I'm not sure where it is.
You know that when he's had a few, there's no telling him—
And that bottle there is his!

No matter how he goes—
In a stupor, trance or doze—
I'll be glad to see him finally find
The way that only he knows!