Sestina For A Generation

Seven years after the mists did meet, mint

grew beneath bridges of Franciscan rock
little men who took many courageous
missions, not to the moon, heard mellifluous
chanting which made them into a generation
who fall into waters for their daughters.
Life fights on for fatherless sons & daughters
by sprinkling backyard gardens with gin & mint
and when the winter races us in, generation
after generation, we will tell stories that rock
our new babes to sleep, for it is our mellifluous
song to paint the bars on the crib courageous
peach and Devil May Care pink. The courageous
politician long ago said goodbye to his daughters,
with their temporary violin recitals as mellifluous
as machine guns in a James Cagney flick, mint
Irish as he was, pumpkin sunrise hair that Rock
and Rollers today still cant perfect, a generation
left as one flat line, one wifi from being the generation
who traded Senate seats for Alaska, a courageous
footprint, not to the moon, but still a rock
the size of prescription pills we hand to daughters.
The silhouettes of older days will remain, when mint
was sold as lottery tickets, those who hear a mellifluous
ring from mother cashiers, and fathers whose mellifluous
-ness was lost, probably as a result of a regeneration
of milkweed. Fathers are always allergic to mint
and milkweed, some soldiers carry it as a courageous
courier, a code from back home, but when their daughters
ask for a dance, these anti-men, these tip-toes, turn to rock.
If not for these men, wed never scale stratums of bedrock
when we see the Andean Emerald, a rare sight and mellifluous
humming from its wings, hence its species, our tired daughters
would be glad they came, and one day, no, for just one generation
wed feel invincible. Fathers. Daughters. Mothers. Sons. Courageous.
And, unpacking, it wouldnt matter that we snuck coca leaves with the mint.
It always has a nice ring to it, I think. Mint budding from rock.
Politicians cheating on daughters. Scrapped vows for mom. Mellifluous
toasts to generals. A generation of charlatans. Its amazing, our daughters.