Lindsay Anderson
Poem #4

Breakfast at Perkins

I’m eating at Perkins, what should I get?
My good pal Peter says get an omelette.
The server asks me what I want to drink.
“Ill have some coffee with cream,” and I’m set.

It’s really a simple choice don’t you think?..
When choosing sausage by patty or link.
Choosing a side of three pancakes or toast,
Too many decisions it makes me blink

Twice. Take a muffin to eat at the Post
Office. ‘They’re mammothed sized,’ Perkins can boast.
“Don’t stress too much your order will be fine.
Why not ask the host what people eat most!”

Build your own omelette for $7.99
It’s what I order here every damn time.
The mushroom and swiss, it tastes so divine
I won’t share with you, this baby’s all mine.

more bitter than sweet
i knew this part was coming
the up and down
rapidly one to the next
and back again
but I forgot that hindsight doesn’t grant knowledge of the present
and I don’t know whether this ends on the up, or the down
“Doesn’t sound like a roller coaster i would care to ride.”
if it ends on the up, it’s all worth it
“And if it ends up down?”
then in a year I’ll know if it was worth it
“That sounds both amazingly difficult and difficultly amazing.”
I hope you don’t mind

Fear Beats In Five Four

This heart it beats in dueling verse,
It beats both fear and love.
Waltzing tune, or five counts terse,
Still both found in its blood.
The fear it destroys
A staggering noise
Its greatest success
The withering breath.
Chances untaken
And lovers were left.
“And still,” say I in waltzing tongue,
My air so fast escapes,
“It’s love that flows into my lungs,
and grants me life to wake.”