Tough Love

Her

If you're a shrink, you've got to be sarcastic

Or (Transactional Analysis) bombastic.

Give those lousy crazies what they're due

For bad decisions made when they were 2.

They'll take it with a smile because they know

They have nowhere else on earth to go.

Pompous, fat and perched upon your throne,

Tell them they are nuts and fully grown,

And living in a world that you alone

Own.

1-7-14

 

Affection

Afraid to show affection

In dread of a rebuff,

So slowly warming up

For nearly 20 years.

Not when I was younger

And shouldered the rebuffs,

Which didn't happen often,

Though all we did was scr-w.

What is an affair

Of more than touching bodies?
Where is the illusion

That makes a pair of one?

I want more than poetry

To finish off my life.

Poetry's a butler.

But love is like a poem.

1-7-14

 

Tough Love

Tough love teaches. Teaches

That Man is very mean

And gets a lot of joy

From hurting others.

But in the name of love.

His hands are clean.

He'll go to heaven.

1-7-14

 

Cats

Kittens only cuddle up and love.

Or go to sleep. Equivalent to that.

But oh how they fight fiercely with their paws

Against another cat. A 100 swipes!

They have no words, and nothing's in dispute.

So wherefore do they fight? The jungle bleeds.

1-7-13

 

Comparison

They have money, youth and god

And don't want to be poets.

Laughing down the sidewalk

Arms together, they seem happy.

Walking up the sidewalk

I am heading to a shore,

With 80 books of poems and

A couple friends and nothing.

1-7-13

 

Gentle Fools

Some people see a gentle man

As foolish and a goat,

And laugh at every syllable

Of verse he ever wrote.

Though other people love him

(Only fools are mad),

He's especially ridiculous

To his mom and dad.

1-8-14

 

My Poems

That such immortal poesy

Came from a brain of wood!

I worry what is better. Really

All of it is good.

Bland and native poesy -

Profundities of thought -

More clever than emotional -

And neither sold nor bought.

And when I'm dead, I think

These 80-something books

Will lie beneath the lime with me

Where no one ever looks.

My poems aren't immortal.

They're shallow, simple, mild,

Rather like a symphony

Written by a child.

1-8-14