When my friend had
His first child, he said
“Now I believe in God!”
“How can you not
believe
When you first look
Into his eyes
Upon the miracle of his life?
The miracle
That is your baby?
“How can you not believe?”
When I had my child
And I watched him crawl
Watched him stoop and learn to walk,
When I saw my son bend his knees
And hunch over
To pick up his first apple
I thought,
“Holy Christ!
“We’re fucking apes!”
Posted in Poetry, tagged Politics on July 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »
When he told them whom to hate
He gave them permission to hate.
When he gave them permission to hate
He gave them permission to feel.
When he gave them permission to feel
They loved him.
Loved him so much. Oh so much.
And then he had them by the soul.
And he could do with those souls what he wanted.
Posted in Poetry, tagged lyrics, Ruined Little Things, Salon De La Guerre on July 11, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I have never said my piece
To strong men and to kings
And my eyes they sweep the ground
When their tragedies are unwound
And the tragedy is how they’ve ruined little things
You dress up in red lipstick
For a date with providence
And every set of eyes is a possible expense
Every new set of arms a residence
But passion turns to violence
And you pin your hope to wings
The tragedy’s the same
they’ve ruined little things
And a weak little man stands
In the corner doing what he can
Helpless to stop brutality
Not ever good for you or me
And soon it comes as sure as if he had the flu
He comes to love his abuser too
And as sure as he’s helpless
The boy he learns to sing
Anther lament of a life ill spent
They’ve ruined little things
Posted in Poetry, tagged coronavirus, covid-19, pandemic, plague, poem, sheltering in place on June 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »
You have your bulky joy
You wear your youth like yarn
Piss mordant till you dye
It keeps your skin from harm
The smoke was once alive
In yellow plaster’s pores
Nostalgic from the wounds
Love has too many sores
And when the plague it came
We measured its hours too
The worst things about man
Turned out to be virtues
We once invented need
In the pre-pandemic dens
Like strangers on TV
We see ourselves back then
A life force is absorbed
In the city’s coming squall
This is how you love now
If you can love at all
Posted in Poetry, tagged black lives, George Floyd, Greenwood, Juneteenth, Tulsa on June 12, 2020| Leave a Comment »
It was in the Times
The future is looking worse
Racial strife. Illness. Hate
No.
The future is not looking worse
It will look better
When we stop lying
About what the past was
Posted in Poetry, tagged jaywalker, movie camera, New York, Poetry, silent movies, Timeless on May 23, 2020| Leave a Comment »
The year was 1911. The movie camera was new
And when it captured the young old souls
In the pinned frames and licked their faces
Onto emulsion, the timeless New York jaywalker
Paid his debt
To posterity by showing,
Abreast the speeding cars,
He still didn’t give two fucks
Posted in Poetry, tagged Poetry on March 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »
The rain cleans your wound
A stab made into the body of luck
An impossible good shank
And all it did was bleed nothing
You lost a thousand words
From your living steak
And the wind lifted the girl’s hair
Mellow, nothing in her brain
But the surprise of knowing
You put a bunch of your dreams in her
You freed and oppressed her with
Your violence
You cut a cloud
And she lived in your rain
And you hope in your wordless despair
Hope she’ll miss you and the pain
Posted in Poetry, tagged Poetry on February 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Guts spilled in the wreck
The pickle that floats the egg
A port where fortified wine
Filled the bellies of the sharks
Who dreamed it was you
Falling off the deck
You now get a shark drunk
To fill him with your sins
You have eyes and bones
For him to devour
For it to devour
Your job is to be devoured
You were as red as the port
Your body made the ocean
Into shark’s wine
Let the ocean be your mind
Posted in Poetry, tagged carnival, colors, Poetry, Rumi on February 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Worries are hidden in mattresses
Like dollars and nickels
And relief comes from a clear ear
Suddenly unbanked of its wax
Remember who took me by the hand
Rumi stopped me and said:
Stop as you look at this carnival
Half of it is just your body
And the tricks it’s playing on you
And the carnival had so many colors
Red, green, blue
So many colors
Posted in Poetry, Relationships, tagged AARP, Love, menopause, old age, poem, Poetry, romance on October 19, 2019| Leave a Comment »
She went to the window
And her perimenopause turned on the air conditioner
“Not tonight. It hurts and I don’t want to be touched.”
It’s OK. A young lover lies on you; an old lover lies with you.
She lay with calm nose breaths
While he came up with some new jokes
The one last night really killed.
Beauty is Imperfection 