So Sweet

Super Powers by Howard Finster

I've got a devil on one shoulder

and another on the other

Baby, I try to be good

but it's so so hard

with these devils of mine

jabbering all the time

One whispers in my ear

for me to do wrong

and the other one, Lordy
it cheers it on

I listen for an angel

but she's been gone 

gone a long long time, baby

and I don't believe 

she's ever coming back
home

All of my sin
must've drove her away

just like you say I'm doing to you

I know you speak the truth, baby

but the devils got me tied

up in lies

But, baby, if you could love a devil

just a little 

I could take the heat, 'cause

Heaven knows,

burnt sugar is so sweet.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, What's Your Vision?

Mrs. Murphy's House of Heads

photo by lolamouse (Cargo in Portland, OR)

The advert in the paper read

"Mrs. Murphy's House of Heads"

I found it down a dead end street

A small house, completely discreet

except the window sign that said

"Mrs. Murphy's House of Heads."

I went inside to have a look

and in each cranny and each nook

was tucked a head, some big, some small

I couldn't even count them all!

Some heads were happy; some were sad

Here was a lass and there a lad

Some heads were ugly; some were fair

Some heads were bald and some had hair.

Each head upon its neck did sit

I found it creepy, just a bit

But I had come to buy a spare

It's said I lose mine on a tear

I wondered what a head would cost

and how the ones in here were lost!

I stood there staring, lost in thought

when someone asked me what I sought

Twas Mrs. Murphy, her fine self

arranging heads upon a shelf

"How can I help you?" she asked me

"I need a head you'll guarantee

will stay attached should I get mad

much better than the ones I've had."

"Come right this way, I think I know

a head that will fit you just so!"

She lead me to a little room

all full of heads that I assume

were packed with thought, with smarts, with wit

the choicest heads that would befit

a person of my pedigree

but which one would she choose for me?

"The head you have right now's first rate,

but if you want to trade it - GREAT!"

"But I want an extra head

I want to keep mine too," I pled

She said, "That's fine, no need to beg,

I'll let you  pay with your left leg."

"No way! I want to keep the pair!"

"I hardly think that that seems fair!"

she said to me with great alarm

"But I suppose I'll take an arm."

I spoke, "You know, I've changed my mind."

I thanked her but at last declined

It costs too much to get a head

I'll keep just what I have instead! 

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Poems in April, Whozits and Whatzits Galore