"Sticks & Bones"

A Gala

Come see the psychiatrists!

The only game in town.

You'll learn a lot of doctor words

With lots of syllables.

Who knows what they mean?

Just say them anyway.

Psychologists don't understand them either.

And if your shrink looks bored, you can

Make faces, summon up

Ridiculous non sequiturs.

See how he comes awake!

And scribbles undecipherable

Notes into a book.

He can't read them either.

It's a highlight of the show

Only seen in sitcoms from the 60s.

The Cynic

Euphemistically called cynical,

Anger spoiled my verse for many years,

A gravid ocean swelling for release.

The anger's there. I feel it. How it hounds.

Even to fantasize a homicide.

I shall write around it wishing I

Were in the age of florid images,

Poetic diction, metaphors and love.

Love was lived. Oh relic mystery!

A phony age of poses, death was real.

Wars were fought. Christ the second king.

Doth and thee and thou. The sedge has withered

From the lake, and no birds sing.

 

Freedom

You can't stand the freedom,

Crazy, bizarre.

Too much oxygen in the tubes.

The cat has relented and

Takes his med.

And doesn't hate George

Though he holds him down.

He grew up in freedom

He fought to keep.

I never had freedom.

My grandfather failed.

My mother defeated him.

Winning is loss.

They're both in their graves

And a residue still

Of what they accomplished

Remains on earth,

Better off lost

In the sea of death.

No never be lost!

Better to know

Where you are when you die.

It's very important

To know where you are.

“Frankenstein”

Victor Frankenstein, the doctor

Said of his wife, “I should have socked her

When she cried, “Create a man,

You pediatric also ran!'”

When he should have thrust his mug up

With defiance, Victor dug up

Something wet and icky.

Here the tale gets tricky.

This creature gotten from the earth,

Born again, a second birth,

Detested Victor with such spleen

That it became quite mad and mean,

And so pursued forthwith and forth

Its creator to the north.

And there upon a floe of ice

(I add to make the story nice)

They floated into paradise.

 

Freedom

“Steppenwolf” Story

Of my poor life.

Given the freedom

There's nothing to do.

I don't like women

And I don't like death.

Given the freedom

I wouldn't do that.

The price of admission

Is only your mind -

The structure, the feelings,

The things that you think

You think will collapse.

Nothing that matters.

You'll die into life.

The garbage you carry

Around in your head -

The gods and the parents,

Ideas and values,

All you consider,

The gods and the bigotry,

Even yourself -

Washed down the drain will be

Carried to sea.

You will be docile.

You'll cease to exist.

The one with charisma

Controlling your life,

Your world and your money.

The bullshit. It's fake.

Remain with your books.

Let the carnival leave.

The carnival's only

In town for a week.

Don't be deceived.

She's a vixen. A fraud.

She just wants your money.

She never says love.

 

“Sticks & Bones”

Home from Viet Nam -

He believes in nothing now -

Not doctor, flag or family,

Jesus Christ or love -

He walks around the village

And talks to everyone.

And everyone he talks to

Unbeknownst to him

Begins to hate him viciously

And wishes he were gone.

Also feels his family -

Harriet and Dave

And daddy Ozzie – all of them

Just sweet Americans.

In the ending scene

The family is sitting -

Ozzie with a pipe and paper,

Harriet is knitting,

Dave the well met brother

Is strumming his guitar.

And Rickie with a bowl of water

And a razor blade

Sits cutting open arteries.

And all of them are happy.

Quietly they visit,

Americans at home,

Evening of a normal Yankee day.

A movie that I saw

And bought the script.