A Glimpse

A Glimpse

Like people? You are positively joking!

She said she was a gofer for her project.

I didn't get a Masters, and she laughed.

Find another hobby. She meant verse.

People have a right to what they feel,

She said. And she meant homophobia.

Not merely hating gays, but making sure

They do not marry. She makes Sarah Palin

Look human. No. She's absolutely human.

Like Hitler and Caligula and Bush.

In her defense of racial prejudice -

Races shouldn't mix. Because it spoils

The beauty of their skins. I never met

Somebody more horrible than she.

Well, I actually have. A thousand times.

Remembering The Ocean

Tormented. And so young. The waves are breaking.

Ride the surf and glide across the sand.

Let the froth behind you splash like wings

Of a hundred angels in the air.

See the sky. The sky is like the sea,

But far more blue. And clouds like pristine snow

Float at ease across a canvas painted

Only with the color of the sky.

The day is warm. The sandy shore is drifting

In a breeze that blows across the dunes.

No people there. The world is almost empty.

Except for sand and waves and quiet noise.

 

A Denny's Regular

Jesus Christ! He's crazy just like me.

Almost every morning he's in Denny's.

He works. And I know where.

He doesn't like me.

I was in his store. He sloughed me off.

Today I saw him talking to himself.

Has he written books

Sequestered in his cloister?
Or music? Does he paint?

Or anything?
Or does he only sit alone at Denny's

Talking to himself? And always will

Til dying interrupts the conversation?

What Matters

Only two things matter. Maybe three

If I include the cats. It's seeing him

Finish school and have a good career

With happiness. And I will say I know him.

And too (with people laughing up their sleeves)

Become a famous poet, just like Keats.

Not just famous. Good at what I do.

Whitman and Bukowski both have fame.

But more than just a madman with a pen.

I finished school. That much I could do.

College only takes a lot of work.

Writing poems takes a lot of talent.

That's why nearly nobody can do it.

 Her

For years you were among

My very favorite people.

At last you broke the rope.

I won't come back again.

Considering your own

Attitude to me -

You hate me like the devil,

Which you believe I am.

I'm nothing more to you

Than a family appendage

That has to be endured.

And also someone smart

You're crazy to compete with.

And triumph when you win.

Isn't that the truth?

Madmen have their eyes.

And anyone who loves

Her dead sadistic parents

With such a blind tenacity

Has got to be insane.

If you like my poems, I have some collections on Amazon, both paperbacks and Kindle.  To look at them, type Joseph Hart Poetry on the search bad at Amazon.