Vern Archer finally feeling his age,
Maybe it was time to write the last page,
Gathered himself and his offspring in view,
For a Bitter Root Manor entre nous;
Sandwiches were involved, some take-out food
Emily answered her phone, which was rude,
Considering, face it, Gramps was eighty--
"This month's cover of STAB couldn't wait, E?"
"Sorry, Antoine, it won't happen again."
"What's up with these new pictures of Dylan?"
Tex wondered. "Why does he look reptilian?"
"Could be some kind of folk affectation."
"I love Rockstar Sugar Free Diet Drink
More than Henri Jayer Richebourg, I think!"

"Son, Emily, Tex," Vern said to silence
Our enthusiastic indifference,
"I may not make it much longer on Earth,
So I have one last shot, for what it's worth,
To arrest the alarming, dangerous
Trend of the race toward bitter sadness,
A struggle I guess we've made our life's work."
"Our motto is: 'Let Herc give it a jerk,'"
Emily quipped, with a line from Bewitched ,
The 60s being our clan's bailiwick.
"Exactly, beautiful," Vern said winking.
"Let's nip in the bud our brethren's thinking
Thoughts are things and life's individual
Before past holocausts become ritual.

"We have to stop the death of John Lennon
Or tragedy will burden us again:
Mark David Chapman, some 'guy with three names,'
Loses touch with reality and blames,
Catcher in the Rye, ergot poisoning,
MKULTRA, LSD in the brain,
The Merry Pranksters, Christ's divinity,
CIA/commie co-conspiracy,
Voices echoing in their hollow heads,
Records spinning backwards, "Turn me on dead--"
Man, I believe in interconnection
On the atomic level between things,
The Big Bang Theory, democracy and
'All you need is sense/In the present tense.'

"We give credit to will a thing forward
To the speaker of future-making words.
A 'will' or 'to will' projects a vision
Fills with thought the unlived-through dimension.
'Something happened and I also willed it,
Or something didn't and thought annulled it.'
I've got news for you; don't take it to hard:
The search for a cause hasn't yet ended.
If something moves is something moving it?
Words excel describing what's not present.
I want to end the ages' confusion
Between true cause and speaker. Illusion
Is the feeble, 'I knew this would happen.'
Leave us delay a burst of hand clapping.

"Picture yourself in a boat in the fu--
Churches are good, families in the pews
Reading a book, singing songs with your friends
Acknowledging fault to prepare amends:
If we resist their ideology,
Nothing is to fear from theology,
Which we assume is the science of "the,"
Article adding singularity
Also the last word in Finnegans Wake
Expansive outbursts of mind, give or take;
That's the thing about stuff, it's always there,
Or, 'Have a seat in our electric chair.
Is it in or out, Ms. Schrödinger's cat?
Wouldn't you like to have fries with that?'

"Don't just sit there, Archers, are you with me?"
"You've got it, chairman!" "Indubitably!"
"Can Grandpa be even less specific?
The run-up is great and food terrific;
Do you think this is Campbell's Tomato?"
"Antoine got it at Wawa, brother." "Oh."
"One more thing I should before starting add:
I'll be charting your progress as we had
In the past, when running these covert deals,
Recording your knowledge of the Beatles,
Incrementally requiring a song
Title or album as we move along
Because participation is like that,
Active interplay, giving tit for tat."

"Do you have one for this repast in mind?"
"An album title." "They're the hardest kind."
"Something relevant to us bouncing back."
"Ooooh. I don't mean to imply an attack,
But I'm still too young for nostalgia."
"Never underestimate trivia."
"Think of it as a challenge to mem'ry."
"We can't name a more crucial one, can we?"
"That's right! The storage of data's unmatched
In the human brain, and every batch
Identifies unique generations
Linking separate actors' situations;
Memory absorbs most when we are young."
"Not so fast as this chalk, but it gets in!"