Larry Hart

Idly

Assuming everybody has

A motor and a gyroscope

Somewhere in his cranium,

I let the kitten go.

He staggered and he stumbled and he

Furtively looked round him then he

Tentatively took steps and then he

Took off at a pace.

Clerks who answer telephones say,

“Who have I the pleasure of -” or

Something just as nauseous.
Just as they were told.

3-15-14

 

Rx

Good old Doctor Chan,

A true American,

Among his peers in medicine,

A doubtful also ran.

When I had the shingles

(Disgusting word, the shingles),

He said it's so contagious

Just to touch the rash

Destroys the mechanism of a brain.

And I believed implicitly

Everything he said.

When my thigh was aching

He prescribed two pills

With no effect what ever.

I asked for something else.

He said to have an x-ray

Which meant a drive to Fresno

In an old jalopy

60 miles away,

Before he'd do a thing.

I took the trip to Fresno,

Came back and told the doctor,

Who kept me on the medicine,

Although it didn't work.

And if I wasn't happy,

He said to have some therapy,

Which I could get in Fresno.

I won't go in for therapy.

I'm sticking to the pills

That do no good. A fool

Who hasn't the diploma that

Would net 100 thou.

3-15-14

 

Larry Hart

I never wanted Keats.

Perhaps a little Poe.

But Larry was my hero.

Sing clever songs and go.

Everybody knows

That love and death are futile.

Ignore them with a happy song,

Clever and inutile.

He's dancing on the surface

Of a glacier to a song,

While underneath the ice,

Deep in the ocean, something's wrong.

I cannot make his rhymes.

Nobody did before.

Everything I write turns into

Something on a shore.

A happy little pixie,

Not so glad at all,

Had a home on Broadway.

There was music in the hall.

My single most endeavor

Is that clever Larry Hart

Got a lot of pleasure

From the genius of his art.

3-15-14

 

Lines

The least approach of living summons death,

Awareness in the offing not yet come -

Memento mori – confiscates my breath

For a moment – shorter than the sum.

Cliches – the bane of song – but Shakespeare wrought

His own cliches – originality

So comprehensive – every minor thought -

And made it seem that life is poesy.

3-15-14

If you like my poems, I have several collections on Amazon - both paperbacks and Kindle.  Most of the paperbacks are $10, and most of the Kindles are $1.  To see them, go to Amazon, click on Books in the drop down, then type Joseph Hart Poetry in the search bar.