Normal

Today

I've hated Yankees since I was eleven

And all their little world pretends to be.

Guns and gods and bigotry and heaven,

And blacks and faggots yearning to be free.

Contempt for anything approaching art,

With make believe and phony prosody,

An icy dagger in the living heart

Of beauty, music, truth and poetry.

4-28-14

 

The Old Woman

Sick and old and lonely. What's she got?

She sits in Denny's with the daily news,

Eating something, but I don't know what.

Then she leaves. No reason to enthuse.

Will anybody care when she is dying?

It's horrible to think of her as dead.

Some know her name. She shuns the blatant prying.

She leaves behind some pages. Are they read?

4-28-14

 

The Bigot

A bigot has no country and no color.

He's everywhere, like excrement and death.

Life is short. So little of it pleasant.

Death long. The only thing that has no end.

4-28-14

Love is blind

Love is blind to what's in store.

Don't wish him disenchanted.

Though treated like the garbage,

He continues to adore.

He certainly won't like you

For telling him the score.

4-28-14

 

Guru

I'm not pompous, brilliant, wise or witty.

The Oscar was, but he was bred to that.

I'm not even clever. It's a pity.

Though Yankees with their gods are dead to that.

I learned my love from Keats. Though he and I

Are not alike. Did some enchanted dust

Like on the wings that lift the butterfly

Fall off on me? It has to be. It must.

4-28-14

 

Normal

Either I'm a genius or a fool

Or both.

No one's written down a golden rule

Wherewith to gauge the thing -

But Proust and Poe are living -

God and death and Stephen King.

And every morning since the start of time,

Fools have put a face on the sublime.

And other fools

Alike of lesser rank

Dissect the face

And take it to the bank.

4-28-14

 

The Gift

I bought two bracelets from a Mexican

On a blanket at the door to Denny's -

One a string of shells. The other many

Colored threads all woven in a plait.

I meant them as a gift, although I knew

The odds were narrow he would even like them.

He made me feel obscene for wasting money,

As did my mother 60 years ago.

The one he loves who lies and steals and mooches

To stay alive, but will not take a job

Has his heart and treats him like a beggar.

And I've lived on the government for years.

His disposition changes like the weather.

I do not like her relatives or friends.

He loves them all. The least deserving poor

Are saints to him. It's evil to have money.

4-28-14