Lyrics

In memory of Dorothy Burns                         I. Troppo Allegro Remember seasons? Seem to recall those once were easier. Reasonably sequenced, regal of tempo and temper, Reliable change flipped heads-over-tails each quarter, Recovering the hemisphere with four fine suits, knock-off designer. Recently, someone shuffled, cut the deck into disorder: Relapse, tic, hiccup, snap, weeks reissued like hipster Rediscoveries    ...    join the club! No closer Reading required to diagnose this crazy weather: Record highs, flourishing lows. April even crueler Recapitulated each fortnight. Spring hailing like a howitzer. Reek of summer tickling autumn's automatic sprinkler. Redder-neck sunbathers burnt by November's toaster. A warbler Retweeting Keats, well into winter. A death for Easter.                         II. Funeral: March Remember: misremembering that fishy Faulkner Remark, the dead are never passed. Ask: will this chapter Retain familiar cycles? Lather, rinse, repeat. Swelter, Reins, release. Welter, ruins, reseed. Seconds per Revolution: top-heavy spinning, simian moods over- Reaching from swing to swing. For reveler, Read revelator: elevator going upper, downer, Results of a heart dialed three degrees warmer. Remedial Ecclesiastes: a time for X, and a-whole-nother Reciprocal time for X's refrain, a dinner Reservation for six — make that five — and an altogether Regrettable time for the long and short divisions of disaster. Remainder: only a matter of time. No more time to matter.                         III. Scherzo: Presto Chango "Remember, the world's stage was not set for your metaphor, Christopher Rex, tragicomic motherfucker: Recognize, why don't you, your relish for the realish, for hinter-gatherer Relationships between the dank diamond mine of  your inner Resources and the Real World (remember that?), our fixer-upper Residence imperiled enough without your cheesier Regrets stinking up the joint — shoulda, coulda, woulda, Gouda. Character Reassessment sure is fun, but don't run down the theater. Regards, Responsive Reader / Longtime Listener / Other: _______ " (Re: that critique, one childhood scene I'll offer: Relatives teasingly wondered why my "gatekeeper," Regulator of mind and mouth, would wander Regularly away from his post. Still no answer.)                         IV. Finale: Re-Fugue Remember with me (it's not all mine to remember), Remind me, under this never-better weather, whether, if ever, "Real time" and its dead-ahead march to an unlucky number Really feel right as a royal flush, since time seems so much fairer Rewound — recoiling counterclockwise, the seasons' order Restoring, entropy decreasing, days uncreasing — now faster, Regress infinitely, till the Spaide family tree, our off-kilter Calder, Recollects its fallen leaves — relief, pains, laughter, Reverse it, past, even, it's not — trust I tamper Respectfully, gatekeeper, but why not even further, Reductio ad absurdum, back to the very scene I enter Rehearsal, ninety-nine degrees, summer-hot, set to simmer, Ready or not, on the twenty-first day of December?