In the continuing promise to my eldest daughter, a poem based on the Twilight Zone Season 1, Episode 29, A Nice Place To Visit:

A Nice Place To Visit
by Michael Romani

Resounding dissonance introduces us to Henry Francis Valentine
Hard at work in his small time hood's life of crime
He calls himself "Rocky" - as rocky is as his life has been
He's never cut a break and knows that he just cannot win
Shot three times by an officer in a cold, dark alley way
Mr. Valentine has suddenly seen the last of his earthly days

Mr. Pip arrives to become the small time thug's last guide
He has come to accompany the thief on his final ride
Valentine protests that he deeply dislikes any sort of game
As Pip lists off several games of favored chance by name
Offering anything and everything that Mr. Valentine might desire
Feeling like a con sold as too easy, the crook is not a buyer

Taking a cue in that nothing good has ever come to him for free
He rejects Pip's solid offer with unfeigned indignity
Urging the impish fat man to give up all of his tainted money
He pushes a gun to his belly as warning against anything funny
Pip gives him more than asked including a home for his approval
Or, Valentine can have another if this one only gets his refusal

Quietly, smiling silently Mr. Pip gives Valentine his penthouse key
While the small time hood grins and laps up the faux luxuries
Still startled though, he demands to meet Pip's absent boss
Troubled by all of these wins after a lifetime of almost total loss
Pip instead suits him up to too, too perfected sort of fit
One look in a jaded mirror and he smiles knowing that he's a sure hit

Served up a sumptuous and gourmand meal meant for only one
Frightened, he orders Pip to eat; but, he's forgotten how that's done
Cluing in again, the thief is taken aback by all he's given
It's taking him quite a while to realize that he's no longer living
How after a lifetime spent on creating new ways of misbehaving 
Has the crook convinced himself that he's somehow in part of heaven

Taking it stride and just for kicks, he demand a million dollars
And the kind of swanky dame who makes him hoot and holler
The dancing tonight will be a case of chasing after the fantastic
Valentine never dreams he has landed into something drastic
Rocky laughs in glee as his streak increasing and is blazing hot
As he gambles into winning hands, pot after endless smoking pot

Driving off with party girls for some kind of winner's party
Valentine laughs again and again feeling quite fool hardy
Clued in again, he finds that his paradise is a private domain
Told of this restriction in Heaven really rocks his brain
Questioning what he ever did to deserve all the goodness of this
Surely, by now he might have realized that there is something amiss

Off to the hall of records, he wants to clear up this mystery
He wants a quick review of all the moments of his history
His special guide, Pip, puts his name on the hood's speed dial
Until one by one, too many wins take away Valentine's smile
All of this gratification is getting to be a bit too much
There's something wrong here; he's getting a hunch

Too much of what he wants is getting to seem a very large sin
Even to him, Valentine confesses, he just doesn't fit in
Haven is not for the likes of him; he wants the other place
Can you imagine the surrealistic surprise plastered across his face
As Pip chuckles and tells him this is after all the other place
It turns out that after all that this is indeed the other place
And he's just another scared, foolish man stuck in a hellish space

(c) August 2, 2017  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved