Poems

Sleazy Doctor Kelly

Therapy destroyed me.

A siege became a rout.

The bitch is in my head,

And I can't get her out.

Sleazy Doctor Kelly!

The subject doesn't stale.

If she sues for libel,

I shall go to jail.

Once I was a person,

Somewhere, sometime, somehow.

She put an end to that.

My thoughts are quiet now.

8-28-13

 

Jessica

A manager at Denny's -

Once I made her laugh -

I left her for a Denny's

That's quieter by half.

She asked me why I changed.

I had too much to say.

I cussed her noisy restaurant,

And she just walked away.

Enigmatic Jessica -

Only here a while -

Surveys the situation -

The Gioconda smile -

And now she's leaving Denny's.

Her sentiments are yon.

She said she's going home,

And Thursday she'll be gone.

8-28-13

 

Authorities and editors

Authorities and editors

Of trashy magazines

Tell you what's permissible

In poetry today.

And nothing that I write

Survives the litmus test.

I take a pen and paper

And empty out my head.

Like sitting in the morning

Groggy on the john -

Phrases, rhymes and rhythms

And clever turns of thought.

8-28-13

Morning In The Other Denny's

The universe is big.

My world is very small.

A couple cups of coffee

Is not a world at all.

67 years

Doing what I do -

Always a beginning -

Little ever grew.

Some men just walked in Denny's -

My age or maybe less -

Knowers of the world -

All I do is guess.

One is in a cap

That indicates a war -

His life and its achievement.

He'll die, and nothing more.

8-28-13

 

Recall

The hours and the paper!

Poetry with guts!

Am I making music,

Or am I merely nuts?

The madness and the pain!

The humor is not grief!

Adrift upon an ocean

Clinging to a leaf!

Many years behind,

Nothing understood,

I finally imagine

That what I write is good.

It only takes a hump

To make a man a dad.

50 years of poesy,

And every poem bad!

8-28-13

 

That Sentence

All she ever said

Was “You are getting better.”

No matter what I did.

And all the neighbors let her.

Her curse was like a prophecy

Simply said because

She saw my great potential

And really thought I was.

Such crap and such palaver!

Pardon me! I'll barf!

She used to call me “Fido”,

And all I said was “Arf!”

This messed up thing, my mother,

A sad and stupid clod,

Who oversaw the universe

And put her trust in god.

8-28-13

 

The Visitors

Ridiculously stupid

And covered with tattoos,

I'm sure they love like bunnies.

They all belong in zoos.

They populate the planet.

You pick them off like lice.

Paradise awaits them.

They're cheap at half the price.

8-27-13

 

While Driving

I hate the signs on buses.

Honey, no one's going to die.

“Assisted living.” “Grow together.”

Life is pumpkin pie.

The verse I wrote I'm reading

Seems interesting, rare.

But I read nothing current

And so I can't compare.

In every line and phrase

I perceive a pearl.

But like Frederick in “Penzance”,
I've never seen a girl.

Again I'm going crazy.

A fast collapse of mind.

Don't pick among the rubble.

There's little there to find.

When a woman has a man

To love, she's in her heyday,

And punctually phones him

Every week on payday.

8-27-13

 

Defeat

Self-publishing! A graveyard

Of pretentious dreams and tragic hope.

But writing puts some fleece inside

The collar of the rope.

Get rich quick with gore and sex!

Goodreads, Kindle, Amazon.

Stories of success are legion.

Read today, tomorrow gone.

But he who cares about his craft,

Dreams of more than just a buck,

Unamerican is laughed

Off the market, out of luck.

8-27-13