Sunday, April 30, 2017

Life Story

I had an idea once
It was laced in pain
I had a vision once
It drove me insane

I’ve been to places
Where I left traces
Of the sorrow I brought
And the destruction I wrought

I’ve met people here and there
Some were boring some had flair
People have met me this is a fact
Some liked me some questioned my act

Words I’ve written have been read
Things that came out of my crazy head
I’ve written poems articles and fiction
They come of my imagination and internal friction

All I’ve ever written said and done
Has been for a reason or just for fun
But nothing has mattered as much as you
For you — Kathryn — my love is eternal and true

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Land of the Free -- Amerika's First 100

Plaid!

Turn that plaid off it's too damn loud

The chewing monster in the wall
will bloody well get his
and you shall hear of it

Revolution and new country
Set up as the land of the free
Constitution was writ large
Washington was first in charge
Then
Adams Jefferson
Madison Monroe
Off we go

Meanwhile there was slavery
(in the land of the free)
AND
Genocide of Native Americans
Andrew Jackson said let's have a
Trail of Tears
The slaughter of tribes went on for years

Cotton gins and cotton pickers and
overseers and auctions and whippings
The bitter blood was freedom's drippings

Glory glory abolitionists
your truth was marching on
end the peculiar institution
(but never give restitution)
Go Harriet Tubman go
Some fought for justice, you know

Lincoln elected
Succession selected
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Bull Run Antietam Vicksburg Gettysburg
Appomattox Court House

John Wilkes Booth
So uncouth
AJohnson now the boss
For the country a big loss

Reconstruction after the destruction
Compromise of 1876 was the sacrifice of the
African Americans
Meet Jim Crow everybody
Lynchings strange fruit
Talk of freedom for blacks was moot

Manifest Destiny that rich white male conceit
Resulted in colored races being beat beat beat
Land was taken
Cultures shaken

America's first 100 years
Cry when you hear
the Star Spangled Banner yet wave
Where cruelty is credited as brave

A rollicking start for the new land
Most of its leaders thought all was grand
Different opinions for people of color and the poor
But who would listen
Glisten America glisten

Turn off the noises we can't watch them reach
Stop it stop it stop 
Make it plaid and lose the buttons
Distract the chewing monster

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Topsy Turvy Even Curvy

The sun shone brightly on the adverb
Whispers danced in the primordial ooze
Absent an excuse I pardoned myself
And the taillight said hello
My day was a ragtag of limos and
Obstinate photo blogs

The concert was sold out
No aardvarks need apply
The Irish ditty was first on the schedule
Next up were the purple platitudes
Obtuse recollection followed

The seismic shift of pickles
The swarming mob of memoranda
Tasted like honey wrapped sorrows
Canning the detergent proved futile
Oblivious writing cats

Then I wrote part four
Parchment paper delight on the express train
The sky was all akimbo after prayer
Dinner with the forlorn paper jam
Obscene stapling muses

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Digression Session

Spontaneous prose is what Kerouac called it
by whom I mean Jack the writer and the scribe
and the prose master and the poet and the novelist
and say can you see by the fawn’s bushy tail
what so proudly it hailed when the temperature dropped
Cropped the picture to leave out Steve out and
weave out of the way of the burning and boiling
and upsettingly roiling and say did I ever tell you
about the time that Finnegan’s Wake woke
and we spoke and spokes of the wheel, the wheel of cheese

So I got out of bed and it was pretty clear that
the black dog of depression was all over the frontal lobe
and the back lobe and the middle lobes
and I was saddity sad sad sad
Dad bad
Not glad
I could feel the depression swirling around
Plus I still itched
The damn rash from the damn meds
it's supposed to be damn fading
but damn if it ain’t still bugging me
and should I call the doctor?
I ate breakfast though it was a struggle to get that much out of me
But I did it
And I sighed and nearly cried for the longest time
but managed to walk to the gym and on my way
called the doctor’s office
and all the time I’m thinking there’s no point to my life
I’m worthless and meaningless and only for the family
do I not just end it all so I keep going
and get to the gym and run eight miles on the treadmill
and after a shower I walked home feeling like aces

Yes

Been feeling fine turpentine all the rest of the day
How long will this last well I’m

not

taking any bets — least of all making any
Bets, gamble shamble ramble
A rambler
Pink Rambler that’s what the wife was driving on our first date
Yup a Pink motherfucking Rambler
How bout that, kitty cat
She had a pathetic white cat back then been declawed
Useless as yesterday's pus
Shortly after we moved in together
we got an abandoned formerly abused cat
Big black monster that had been living in the building
where wife worked
We called it Stretch because it was so long
and would stretch out so
and in honor of Willie McCovey
That cat didn’t like anyone touching it except me
I could pick Stretch up and hold him for a little while
Anyone else would get bit

Yet

When oldest daughter was a wee one
Stretch would sit around with us
and sometimes daughter would go over
and bang on the cat and he took it
evidently understanding about small children
Amazing animal

Did I just digress?

Did I ever....................