The Thin Man Goes Home

You are as even tempered as a frying pan In a sudden downpour A campsite in disarray A long time coming Laughter from two yards over The neighborhood a claim on space Involving multiple parties It must be Father’s Day Judging by the heightened attentions of daughters and sons Thus a man enjoys solitude, stillness, pink petals of the carrier rose And in a certain light The sonic continuum of tires against the road The sensation of being carried along toward the end of a sentence After the disappearance of the period Air to breathe, water to drink The suggestion box is empty Obsolete equipment piles up in nooks and crannies This is all wrong, that’s messed up We go on in and make ourselves comfortable The movie has just begun It’s Nick and Nora Charles and their little dog Asta They’re visiting Nick’s parents in the suburbs He’s on the wagon and trying to keep a low profile But of course she brags about him to the local paper And soon he’s embroiled in detective work despite himself There is crime everywhere, even here in the suburbs It must be human nature Desperate characters on the loose “Yoke yourself to your strongest conviction” Was a piece of advice derived from the Y in JOY But Pam doesn’t buy that And I say it sounds too slavish Remember the Groucho line “These are my principles If you don’t like them I have others” When the pen runs out of ink You simply replace the cartridge And continue writing To the sound of jet planes overhead It’s time to revive the typewriter For the benefit of kids Now entering the ranks of the scribe force Sliding the paper under the roller Striking the surface with heavy metal blows History curls right into the future A Möbius strip That brings bygone media around and back With all the drama, character, sound, light and destiny Alive in an imagination of living