Latest poems

Clockman 

Where is your glove, oh, Sally, my dear?

Queried the wizard while drawing so near

I’ve lost my glove! It’s help that I need

That you may have but you will work for me

And when the clock stops at midnight,

I’ll creep into your room; and when you’re asleep 

I’ll carry you away because you forgot 

I’ll spirit you out, wanted or not

And with magic yarn, you’ll crochet stars

But they will fade away if lying you are 

Stars are bright and how they can soothe;

 you will lose them all if you don’t tell the truth!

I may come again when you are asleep;

You never know when or where I may creep

.....

Boundaries become conceptual;

Can I borrow your nachos?

Friendship becomes meaningful;

Can I borrow those clothes? 

There is no you that I can see;

But you reflecting parts of me

..... 

There were beaches in Australia

Too much Kitsch in the vodka

Ironic gathering observed

Biding my hours 

while waiting for

.....

Jericho, unvaccinated 

Rebecca, regarding the boy

The outdoor bedroom,

Unvaccinated joy

Embrace of nature

As he hugs a raccoon

Unconfined rooms

Riddled with rabies 

Rickets and scoliosis 

Scattered with scabies

Unhinged halitosis 

Jericho, lost to natural woes

Fever-dream thrashes in throes 

.....

Scandalous Life

College students, piled on debt,

Hear dread whispers,

“Not you, not yet!”

STEM careers we hath,

If you’re very good at math! 

we only wish you well,

At a drive- thru or a CDL!

We hire the best or those who cheat

Our system you can never beat

It won’t take you anywhere 

Our Meritocracy Unfair! 

money means you have it made,

 Go and ask Olivia Jade! 

...... 

Incessantly, you speak to me

Of cows, of fields, of hay

And I, nodding in reply,

Oh, won’t you go away?

Your rustic charm gives me alarm

I want to run away

Of breeding horses or Sausage courses, 

You speak about all day

....

Escarpment

Sleep won’t catch me

Blankets unraveling, unmade bed

Pounding headache, awake

Losses and no wins

  

Insomnia of decades long

Years of unmade beds

Mentally unraveled sheets

Without a sleepy head 

Sheep pass me by 

But with sedation,

I count the woolly hides, 

Finding relaxation 

The pills, the booze, the funny farm

In repose, rest becomes alarm

“Silver”

Meetings half-contrived,

Just a contact of the eyes. 

That forbidden apple very near

In view, he disappears

Portrait modeling in silver dress,

Yet not the painting to possess.

In the studio, he isn’t far

And there’s more talk in a car

Never of her husband or his wife,

Or their road-not-taken life.

Or their parents, in dismay,

At their meetings in this way

Fleur in silver, man cannot resist 

And they share a moonlit kiss

But, fate twists on shifting sands,

And autumn chills her silvered plans.

“Mythos”

More artist than man,

Drawing lightning in mere sand.

Mere words he does not say,

In an angled,  worn beret. 

Known to linger at cafes 

Discussing Picassos painted blue

In air-thickened cigarette perfume, 

Interactions he evades,

Seeing smoke in light and shade

starving, he’ll not waste away

Stumbling by sunset in cafes

.......

JPG the First

alone, Mr. Spaghetti stands unbending 

Ensconced in embellishments unending.

As his grandson they are rending,

A heart, too small, nailing art upon a wall

Misers must accrue a sum

Interest never comes undone

......

Bland Opening

Industrial decor 

staffed by the unsmiling,

tacos made un-Hispanic

 and everything 

unwanted is on tap

Today’s special is loneliness,

Seated in areas marked, 

Discarded humans in time. 

....

Tuberous

They took my eyes and peeled my skin,

To make their fries, they sliced me thin,

Blind and muted, grown without blame, 

the spud that dare not speak its name.

From rich earth, nutrients absorbed, 

They lay me on a cutting board. 

Scalloped in butter, or baked in foil,

Only an iron heart stands a tuber’s toil. 

A vegetable delicious without much fuss,

Underground treasures are tuberous. 

.....

The Colony You Gave Away

America, you cruelly taxed

India, you left intact.

The brutal act of yesterday 

Was the Colony You Gave Away

Hong Kong knew its borrowed time

Its haven could not stay sublime.

Enterprise slowly chokes in Red

As freedoms of the press are bled.

Boots march now in every square,

Mandarin spoken everywhere 

Its day in the sun expired away

In the Colony You Gave Away 

As you Brexit from your continent,

The freedoms of Hong Kong are rent.

.....

Death of a Rat in Drizzle

Dying breath, the intake of air

As master injects himself, 

Drizzle leaks into the corners. 

To blot it out; the eye

Closes and we go nowhere

The desolation recedes.

Surviving on the crusts he left,

Eating became rare,

Heroin replaces life. 

A rat’s death,

This is nothing. 

.....

Legend of Lily Flagg, 1891

She might have trod upon this sod

Over vale and on the hill

Her great udders must have sagged 

(Producing butter by the bag)

Our grandest cow, Miss Lily Flagg

Now the streets and thoroughfares 

Take her name across the years 

The Butter-Queen, we surely brag

Of our Grand Hope, Miss Lily Flagg

She lit the skies on Monte Sano night,

The cow that brought electric light. 

.....

Midlife makes a bridge

Between youth and mortality 

The fading hope of

salient dreams,

The restless quaking,

furtive schemes.

Unfortunate sartorial 

choice cedes

to moderate cautious 

voice

faded mothers 

cheer for sons

without a bit of 

makeup on

And nothing lasting 

nor concrete

but the green that

buys the food we eat

As nuts the squirrels 

for winter store,

a nest egg helps

us to ignore 

The stale dreams of beauty gone, 

and of glories never won. 

....

Solitude and the Coffee Bean

Coffee for one,

The barista doesn’t see me

Spells the wrong name 

Tables, separated by seas

Of depersonalized tiles.

Overstuffed chair cradles

My insecurity 

And the poem written on a napkin

Is thrown away and forgotten 

To sterilize the cafe

......

Unfriendly Skies

Flight must be attended;

Hurry up and wait.

Your life may be upended;

we’ll search you at the gate.

Liquids will be thrown away,

Don’t tell us any lies.

Please enjoy your trip today - 

Come fly unfriendly skies! 

And, just when you are seated

After passing every test,

We may just give your seat away

To the person we like best. 

And, if you won’t give up your seat,

You’ll be beaten black and blue. 

We never learned to de-escalate,

So, we’ll blame it all on you. 

Cameras record your every move,

Flight Attendants are watching you....

.... 

mindbend

phantasms bend mindfully 

and police pound down the doors

as substantial extrusions drip

From my ears and puddle on floors

trees are never in a wood,

but breathe in iron lungs 

and no-one’s money’s any good

the banks are crawling with bugs

I cannot see reality 

but she growls so steadily 

....

Hillville and the magic cow

In the frontier days of yore,

John Hill washed up on a shore.

And walked three years and a day

To a town of tranquility 

And, on that bluff, he spent a night,

And was amazed by glowing light.

She sweeps her gaze upon him now,

Miss Millie Bragg, the magic cow! 

None but the cow that he could see,

So that land was meant for he!

His people live there, on this day still,

The quiet village called Hillville 

Whenever children learn to engineer,

And dream of rockets circling spheres,

Miss Millie Bragg leads them to that hill

And they become persons of Hillville