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
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