We Miss You, John

As I remember John Lennon today on the 31st anniversary of his death, I think about the man who had such passion for a peaceful and just planet and how he's needed now more than ever in this world of strife and suffering.

I can't avoid the fact that he'd no doubt be disappointed that the world hasn't gotten any more just, or peaceful, and in fact remains staunchly embedded in conflict and hatred.

But besides preaching peace and imagining a better world, he also had a more carefree and playful side with a very strange sense of humor.

As a kid, I was lucky enough to have a big sister who had a couple of John's books of bizarre tales and equally strange scribbled drawings in his own hand, and I still find them weird and funny in the most delightful and twisted way.

Here's a sample of one of his poems (from the 1965 book "A Spaniard in the Works") in case you're not familiar with John, the author (and humorist):

THE FAT BUDGIE 

I have a little budgie
He is my very pal
I take him walks in Britain
I hope I always shall. 

I call my budgie Jeffrey
My grandads name's the same
I call him after grandad
Who had a feathered brain. 

Some people don't like budgies
The little yellow brats
They eat them up for breakfast
Or give them to their cats. 

My uncle ate a budgie
It was so fat and fair.
I cried and called him Ronnie
He didn't seem to care 

Although his name was Arthur
It didn't mean a thing.
He went into a petshop
And ate up everything. 

The doctors looked inside him,
To see what they could do,
But he had been too greedy
He died just like a zoo. 

My Jeffrey chirps and twitters
When I walk into the room,
I make him scrambled egg on toast
And feed him with a spoon. 

He sings like other budgies
But only when in trim
But most of all on Sunday
Thats when I plug him in. 

He flies about the room sometimes
And sits upon my bed
And if he's really happy
He does it on my head. 

He's on a diet now you know
>From eating far too much
They say if he gets fatter
He'll have to wear a crutch. 

It would be funny wouldn't it
A budgie on a stick
Imagine all the people
Laughing till they're sick. 

So that's my budgie Jeffrey
Fat and yellow too
I love him more than daddie
And I'm only thirty two.