While Listening To Liszt

Just Going


Impulses, fantasies, feelings -
Inappropriate – still the doubt -
The doctor didn't quite sort them out -
Now I'm ripping the scab away -
Horrid thoughts of another day -
Heal it over and seal it down -
Take your lover away from town -
Ancient feelings and bygone thoughts -
However loved, every lover rots -
Christ!  What a horrible mess!
Whatever you do, don't say “yes” -
My verse is improving as I get old -
There is nourishment in the mold -
But going backward, not forth because
My verse is as good as it ever was -
As my lease on the earth expires
And my motivation tires,
Unlike Hemingway I run out
Of thoughts and topics to write about -



12-13-13

While Listening To Liszt


Through the horrors and the wars -
Glory, gold and god -
Purpose for the common man
Since the earth was just a clod -


Still someone invented
The piano and the violin -
Though neither god nor man
Has for a day relented -


12-13-13


Commonplaces


Stay away from crazy people.
What they say will f-ck your mind.
And the liar said to me,
“Thank god for honest men.
They increase your freedom as you
Always know what they're about.”
And the doctor shouted,
“I can't tell you what to do.
Only you can tell me what you want.”


12-13-12

The Brooder


In places still called grammar schools
They inculcate the country's rules,
And not a single son can stammer
Out a single word of grammar.
But they all wear t-shirts bearing
Football emblems and uncaring,
And the daughters dressed in pink
Love themselves and learn to think.
Starting on the bottom rung,
They teach the babies while they're young.


12-14-13