Disorderly Conduct

Keep to the right
Keep to the right
Teachers all taught
Keep to the right

Stay on the right
While we all walk
So it’s not chaos
Crossing crosswalks

Dodging and bumping
While in the store
Now it’s all madness
No order no more

Keep to the right
Is obsolete
It went in decline
For the…me me

Keep to your right
Or to your left
It’s about order
Not politics

Stay in your lane
Stay in your lane
It was so simple
Now it’s all lame

Wood Walk

I wood walk for leisure
I wood walk for me
I wood walk to listen
To old woods that creak

I wood walk at daybreak
I would walk and breathe
I wood walk and take in
The scent of wet leaves

I wood walk and ponder
I wood walk the trail
I wood walk the winter woods
When I want to feel

I wood walk in rhythm
I wood walk alone
I wood walk and listen
As birds sing along

I wood knock on knotted pine
I wood walk right in
And then walk the wooden pews
Of my church again

Bill MacEachern December 13, 2023

A Dorchester Christmas

Triple deckers decked in lights
Mostly colors, some just white
Christmas trees all dressed in tinsel
Glow at night though lace draped windows

Kids with shovels dot the streets
Digging out from Christmas Eve
Some with smiles, some with frowns
All can’t wait to run back home

In our clan were seven kids
We shared gifts like Irish twins
Sisters played their stereo
Brothers racked the pool table

On Christmas Day in Dorchester
Some gifts came from Globe Santa
Three sisters and four brothers
We had less and more than others

Bill MacEachern December 13, 2023

Rabbit Hole

I woke one morning
Everyone’s gone
We fell in that rabbit hole
In what we call phones

Gone is the laughter
It’s all lol
It’s not really funny
Not even giggles

Hello, Is that you
Or phisherman
You say you want
To be friends again

I miss the connections
That ring a ding a ling
Saying hello
With our voices again

I don’t want lyrics
I’d rather hear song
Volley’s of voices
Of words strung along

I woke this morning
Missing my friends
I’ll send you my feelings
In emoji sad grins

Bill MacEachern December 11, 2023

That Smell

That smell I know
But can not place
Is from my youth
A certain space

That smell I know
Is  so familiar
Musty and cold
Like an old root cellar

That smell I know
Brings me right back
Crawling, exploring
But not an attic

Now my nose knows
Like incense in church
That smell I remember
Playing under the porch

Bill MacEachern 2018

Everything Trees

They’re shade
From the sunshine
Shield from the rain
Pulp for the paper
And wood for whittling

They’re body’s
For climbing
Arms for a swing
Markers of time
And fruit for picking


They’re trunks
For the tapping
Billboards of love
Home for critters
High on up above

They’re kindling
For cooking
Heat in our hearths
Leaves for the looking
With your sweetheart

So everybody
Listen to me
Give a big hug
To the
Everything tree


Bill MacEachern
10/29/2021

Old Boy

In the valley
Of my soul
Lives a boy
Who never grows old

The kid’s a keeper
Of my regrets
He holds the key
To all my secrets

He opens the book
Of shame and self doubt
Turning pages
To purge it all out

Chapters need reading
And read with a shout
Ones like
The Boy And The Older Adults

Deep inside
The young man resides
Living with scars
His needs unrealized

Gifts from within
Came with no guide
Art, words and music
So little applied

Outside now
He runs a lame man
Running as fast
As doubting feet can

Keeping his friends
At bay with his plans
Rarely giving them
All that he can

Same with music
And all his art
Never near finished
But boy what a start

Always the actor
Doing his part
Playing for laughter
With a sad heart

Bill MacEachern September 2016