Lavender Flow

Can you rhyme Hitler?

and make it sound somewhat satisfyingly funny—

like SpongeBob taking a bubble bath in Squidward's house.

~

Can you rhyme Kissinger?

and make it sound impactfully, intentionally immortal—

like Team Rocket sassing Ash Ketchum,

and Heil, James supporting the LGBTQA+ community.

~

Führer, führer, no mein führer,

bad, bad painter—true artistry died with a shot,

like Sonic almost drowning

as the countdown ticks

and the synth line vibrates.

~

Je vois la vie en rose.

~

Ba-ba-ba… Barbara Bush… and Andy Kaufman…

lost at sea, remembered on land.

~

Can you rhyme it funny?

E. Roosevelt with Édith Piaf singing a solo reverie.

~

If Stalin and Lenin, Trotsky,

and Dostoevsky—wrestling, wrangling idealisms.

~

Responsibility. Reprehensibility.

Tea with Mussolini, perhaps, for education.

~

Still water.

Gate open.

My mind is free

as I breathe in the lavender flow—

like the scent of a floral beacon

that brings me hope and peace.

~

Why just take the vile and dehumanize them?

Avoid the punchline to save the—

~

anything.

*

Thanks for reading!

Author's Notes: It's interesting. I didn't want to put an author's note on this and will not discuss anything mentioned in the poem, here. But will just say that I think because I saw the title of Matthew Fromm's latest poetic offerings, Lavender and Roses, I had lavender in my head. So, here is an appropriate shout-out.