The New Talk

Rules

Pontificating rules

Like a dozen reeds

Standing in a bog -

What a poem needs, -

Supposing they are true -

How poets ought to write -

Willows in the wind -

Shadows in the night -

All of them correct

For any certain song -

Until another time,

Another poet comes along.

But structures do not change,

Immutable like time -

The motion of the ocean,

Association of the rhyme.

5-20-14

John

Many years ago

He fell in love with me

Because he'd found a person

A weaker soul than he.

And following relief

And temptation – we were gay -

He headed us in tandem,

He bravely led the way.

But after several years

The clock and hammer fell.

I ended the affair

And wished him into hell.

5-20-14

 

Crazy Love

I love him. He is kind.

He's crazy and he's shy.

Love is caused by Jesus.

There's nothing in the sky.

He's loved a dozen others.

And really so have I.

Love must have dynamics,

But nobody knows why.

No one understands it.

Just the mad and lonely try.

Love is something given,

Not something you can buy.

Man is a Samaritan

Who'll leave you there to die.

A lunatic is standing by

My booth. So go and cry

Like everybody does

Except the knowing, who just lie.

I used to love the crazy.

Now I wait til they walk by.

I learned to leave the crazy

All more loveable and knowing

In a hospital than I.

5-20-14

 

The New Talk

Yankees like their slang

Right up there with god,

Tattoos and “experience”
Where the saints have trod.

Yankees aren't original,

Just extremely odd.

5-20-14

 

A Brief Era

In a great society

Of good and proper prigs,

You must restrain your lexicon

Or be asked to leave.

Not that your voice is loud

Or aimed with some rebuke.

Just that those words are naughty,

And virtue must prevail.

5-20-14