Poems — Jan-May 2013

These poems are drafts, not final versions, and are not to be shared outside this website.

Selected Poems

130525

EX-PROCRASTINATOR

Doing nothing?
Nothing doing!

* * *

130515

DANG IT ALL

I’m about to die
in the blink of an eye of a fly
and the question isn’t how,
but why;
why is this life
so interesting now?

* * *

130505

CONSIDERING MY OPTIONS

I kill bugs.
In my kitchen, mainly.
Spiders in the bathtub I escort outdoors.
Well, ticks I drown.
No telling, inside my body,
what havoc occurs to other lifeforms.

Are there alternative options?
Can I redesign any of this
with a mutually beneficial outcome?
Or is it possible that it’s already so?

We’re all in this life/death adventure together;
that’s my basic assumption,
even it’s only within my own mind.
But I do mind
killing bugs.

* * *

130504a

ROLE CALL

I heard the critics
squabbling today.
That’s fine;
they have their play.

The artist chooses bliss.
They don’t know what they miss

* * *

130504c

POISED

How do I move
when my soul is so still?

Why should I move
if I haven’t the will?

* * *

130410

KILDEER

Today when the hail
bombarded the lake shore,
where was the mother bird?

If not on her twig-and-gravel nest,
have those three speckled eggs
gone stone cold?

* * *

130409

ODDS AGAINST

If I start a poem, will a poem result?
I wouldn’t expect a giraffe,
or a gnome, or a carafe . . .
though, if one appeared, I’d exult.

* * *

130403

WORK DEMANDS

Do it now:
that’s all I ask.
Hurry! Hurry!
Multitask!

* * *

130314

SLUMBER

Here he is in workday clothes,
breathing softly through the nose;
hands on chest, clasped and closed;
posed as if in death’s repose.
It’s a preview, I suppose.

* * *

[Undated]

WISTFUL

I don’t know why,
she said with a sigh,
but I want to be healthy
the day that I die.

* * *

130221

EXPECTANT

I hear breathing, chirping;
I hear chiming clocks;
I hear subtle tappings;
I hear clicks and knocks.

But all I’m really listening for—
is that one knock upon my door.

* * *

130220

!  B@@[\]  B!??^/

I been bizzy—
bizzy like a B
when all the
other alphabet
ups and goes to C.

* * *

130219

NO ‘CUZ FOR ALARM

Howdy, friend.
You look glum—
sumthin’ botherin’ you?

Yeah! Nuthin’ matters.

Oh, uh-hum. You might
wanna think that thru.

* * *

130218

SLEEP WALTZING

It only gets better,
this life-death trance.
I am eternal.
This is my dance.

* * *

130213

HAPPY TRUTH

This truth
by wise ones is averred:
you can’t unsay
a done-said word
and you can’t roller skate
in a buffalo herd,
but you can be happy …
if you’ve a “don’t-mind” to.

* * *

130212

ENSURE THIS

Never give up,
even if you never make it.

Never pass the cup
without a chance to taste it.

* * *

130211

THE UNDEAD

Dawn arises,
not from ashes,
but from its own
pooled blood.

* * *

130210

PLEASANCE

Like a happy
hippopotamus
am I—
scant of thought
and slow of pace,
but wallowing
in grace.

* * *

130203

A FRESH VISUAL

Our finches are prolific;
we must take measures.

This morning, Ethan checks
the nest and confirms—
“Time to pluck some eggs.”

* * *

130202

HARD TIMES

16-bean soup,
give or take a bean

* * *

130201

LAMENT

Alas, I’ve failed
at loving you—
but not for want
of wanting to.

* * *

130128

ENOUGH IS PLENTY

It could be fame,
or wealth, or breath, or death—
it doesn’t help to plead;
life doesn’t give me
what I want,
it gives me what I need.

* * *

130125

FINALLY FEARLESS

If God is truly
Love and Good,
He’d never abandon me—

and if He’s not
or if He should,
why would I care to be?

* * *

130123

NOTICE

I declare myself free—
not as a battle cry,
slogan, motto, avowal,
assertion, or affirmation—
as an observation.

* * *

130121

MISFITTED

I weep. I rail. I curse.
What’s wrong?
What’s wrong?
What’s wrong?
Where do I belong?

* * *

 

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