Poem for Monday, June 29, 2009

The Other Poets

When I gaze up I see the other

poets watching me between the

vaporous lining of clouds

              sitting on

thrones no beneath trees and

Dionysus gave them his

best wine (squeezed each

              grape with his hellenic fingers)

look in the corner over there:

Ginsberg and Kerouac are sauced

writing another song about

               pulling their daisies to the

beat-beat-beat of their bongos (Bukowski

watches them in his underwear with

               a cheap cigar, jealous)

Williams, Eliot, Plath and the like

are up there, too, waiting for

me challenging me even daring me

               (me, a random fart in

the universe)

to wad my brilliance into a ball

spit it at them through a straw

with beautiful velocity

"So, young poet, aspiring writer,

random fart in the universe, what

will you write about today?" they

               inquire in my day-

dreams (when I'm not dreaming

of rainbows or one-night stands)

"I don't know," I tell them

and I smoke a cigarette

and it's always good

Poem for Thursday, June 25, 2009

Found Poem 7

The priestesses revealed their visions of the holy night:

far from the school yards of hell

Susan B. Anthony was arrested November 1872

got no teeth, damn near blind, can't eat

don't cry, baby (sailors never cry)

I saw a hand coming down through the chimney

it took the child to a designated parking area

suitable for at least 5,000 cars

manufactured/distributed by: Funky

Der Wegverlauft ist oft schmal und steil

Caesar had regained supremacy in Gaul

by order of the state fire marshal

130 volts in Mexico

breakfast bowlfuls beyond Bedrock backyards

therapeutic benefits that defy

biological explanations

Good neighbors and good fences

you're doing morphophonemic analysis

serving size: 1 package

grab your dick and double click

my wife and I would like to thank you

for entertaining us

I am the last optimist

Poem for Monday, June 22, 2009

Where Will the Wind Carry Us?

Where will the wind carry us

tonight?

over mountains, perhaps

soaring agile between each

crack        and         crevice

while vibrant colors

erode, explode around us

under oceans, perhaps

smoothly slicing through

pristine                   depths

while schools of fish

swim inside the fiery coral

Where will it carry us?

atop castles, perhaps

cruising agape around

limestone               gargoyles

in a Bavarian forest with

bird echoes and dungeon screams

through deserts, perhaps

tumultuous sandstorms scattering

grain       upon        grain

as the steadfast camels

trudge on to El Dorado

Where will it carry us?

Where?

over

     under

           atop

               through

                        between

                                    beneath

                                                 everything and all

Poem for Sunday, June 21, 2009

Bui Doi

Those poor children--

roaming rotten

streets and

rice paddies in

what's left of

Saigon

conceived in vain

while bomb clusters

darkened the sky:

BOOM!

death, death to

Hanoi!

crying tears of

livid American fathers

terrified Vietnamese mothers

                                 abandoned

                                 abandoned

bathing in dirt beneath

two tattered flags and

the relentless red sun

                                abandoned

                                abandoned

Poem for Friday, June 19, 2009

10 Poetic Questions

I. How high into the sky

   must you go

   before you get cold

II. Have the purest times

     already passed

     or do they not exist

III. When Caesar faced

      that fateful day in March

      did he get goosebumps

IV. Can blades of grass

      make love like

      chlorophyll soul mates

V. Who coined the term

     "soul mates" and

      were they drunk

VI. Where on this earth

       is the twenty-seventh

       wonder of the world

VII. Why do stars

        explode into supernovas

        on special occasions

VIII. Are breathing and breath-

         taking truly in

         the same linguistic family

IX. Who said they loved you

       only because your love

       was accessible

X. What does a simple man

     have to do to get

     appreciated

Poem for Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Astronomy

Blowing smoke at the sky

a ring aiming

for the North 

Star or maybe it was 

Venus I was

laying flat-backed on the

concrete dreaming of

muses and musing over

dreams that will

only be dreams did

I really feel peace or

did I just feel

Poem for Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Summertime and Nothing Else

"Now you're all gone, got your makeup on, and you're not coming back..."

  -Broken Social Scene

Equilibrium hit

when we least

                         expected it

our timid molecules

suddenly mobile

when we were entangled in

                          90 degrees of hand-

holding and smiling

there was a hole in

my jeans and

a stain on your blouse

an itch on my arm and

a tickle in your throat

we laughed at these

                          silly indiscretions

do you remember

when the stratus clouds

crunched the sun?

do you remember

how the rain fell through

a busted pipe in the sky?

I remember

when you tried to be pensive

(you were wearing a

                          yellow skirt

 I watched as it lifted in

                          the breeze)

Poem for Sunday, June 14, 2009

Grandma's Plums

Shinnying up her tree

I asked, "Granny, will

you pick me a plum?"

I was five years old

(plums: such succulent fruit

               smooth amethyst spheres

               dangling like temptation)

  

I asked, "Granny, will

you--" and before I could

finish she had a plum

in her calloused palm

her wrinkled forehead and

emphysema screamed fatigue but

I was a little boy

I was always so hungry

the easiest to reach

housed a worm or were bruised

the hardest to reach

were blessed by God

(fifteen years later: no more plums

                                   sprout from

                                   the branches)

I asked, "Granny, what

happened to the plums?"

and she reminded me

that fruit spoils

Poem for Friday, June 12, 2009

You Can Cry in Front of Me

Hazier than condensation

    drip-

            -ping

down a shattered mirror in

millions of directions

you

came to me, said "You can

     cry in front of me"

it clogged my mind up, honestly

my synapses were tangled

my neurons flickered feebly

     why? why

that's when I realized

I need you

a man can make his

tears a tumultuous tide

against a

     cracking dam

each one a glimmer

of a terrible memory and

I need you

Poem for Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Birth of Modernity/Free Enterprise

The monarch relinquished his

golden sepulcher and throne

when the time for a

new regime came and

I think

they came from the north

Sifting through oceanwaves like

Israelites with vengeful appetites

and general disdain and

my god, did they have weapons

There they went

they screamed from the north:

Your world has been

doused with kerosene;

we are the flame

we are the flame

(BoomBoomBoom!)

Poem for Monday, June 8, 2009

Hate Is a Plant

It sprang from the

    rocky earth

between luscious orange

marigolds and other

preferable plants

    mad at the world

from the start--

it only thrives

in subzero temperatures

no one

    wants one of these bastards

in their garden

they only notice it when they

reach for their geraniums

     and get pricked (ouch!)

all the pesticide

in two worlds combined

can't destroy it

      but only pollinate it

      brooding pollination

for everyone to inhale

      like carbon monoxide--

it only thrives

because of us

Poem for Saturday, June 6, 2009

My Wedding Might as Well Be Ideal

If I get married

I want want she wants, but

if I have a say in

      the matter (a small say)

I want my wedding to be

simple:

less than fifty people

enough hors d' oeuvres

but not too much and

the first song we

dance to won't really

matter

when she glides down the

aisle I'll admire her skin

tone against her ivory gown

the sun will be there

so will the moon with

Eros and his bow

                         (an open

bar is yet to be determined) and

she'll write her own vows

I'll write my own vows

using the word 'love'

as much as possible

Poem for Friday, June 5, 2009

Haikus on Simplicity

I.

A robin chirping

'neath a canopy of leaves

her blue egg unhatched

II.

In the evening sun

I, sitting Indian style,

scratch my left elbow

III.

There are German words

on a silver can of beer:

I am pleased with them

IV.

The door is closed

just enough to where light fades

but the warmth still exists

V.

My glossy pebbles

surround my Buddha statue

suddenly, I thirst

Poem for Thursday, June 4, 2009

The Family Table

The man has

bro

               ken

his bread and

bows his head

he

   looks

too soft to be a

war vet but

stern enough to

be a loving father

of

  a boy

too cold to be a

loving father and

angry enough to

be Cain

but

    can't

the man at least be

thankful for something

if nothing but a

single, lonely memory

Poem for Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Like Happy Savages

We traipsed around like

       happy savages

barefoot on rocks and

       dancing on land mines (boom!)

Sun-scorching our Anglo backs

       against cool muddy water

grains of sand wedging down the

       crevices of our souls

Who decided that we were grown and

did I hear you say that we're brothers?

Nothing short of a swine's

       head on a staff

casting a silhouette for fairy

       dances and lightning bugs and

We traipsed around

       until we just couldn't anymore

Poem for Monday, June 1, 2009

For Lilly

This year you

sit 

in your sandbox

build

cakes and castles

smile

rows of baby teeth

cry

tears of impatience

Next year you

saunter

around the playground

laugh

with new classmates

release

my guarding hand

forget

my name a time or two

At eighteen you

crash

a car or two

love

a boy or two

apply

for jobs or college

find

your place here

And at forty

I love you

just the same