What I Am

I am a decaying old man
I am not the middle aged father/poet of my fantasies
I never was
I was a school teacher
I still am
I am healthy
Not wealthy
Maybe wise
My body is fine
My mind is fine
My soul is fine
But they are each nearer
The end
Than the beginning
Much
So I go
Towards the end
Still wistfully enjoying the ride
Though I may still wish
That I was
The middle aged father/poet of my fantasies

I Wish

I want it to be
Dusk on a cold
November Wednesday
Of a foggy day
And I'm alone in my
Dimly lit apartment
Groggy from a nap
TV flickering sound off
A hardcover book of poems on my lap
A quilt at my side
The cold seeping in
Through a kitchen window
Waiting for my wife
And a warm dinner
And soft talk
And the comforter
And love making
And a deep sleep

Country Rag

Lederhosen Germany
Sauna Finland
Sushi Japan
Curry India
Shakespeare England
Carnival Brazil
Moose Canada
Baguette France
Tea China
Andes Chile
Cossack Russia
Da Vinci Italy
Cigar Cuba
Kangaroo Australia
Sphinx Egypt
Aristotle Greece
Windmill Holland
Kilimanjaro Tanzania
Kilts Scotland
Aztec Mexico
Fjord Norway

Ducks on the Bay Raise Questions

There are ducks sitting on the bay
So many questions
Aren't they cold?
Are they happy?
Sad?
Have they ever, even once, even just one of them
Heard 'Combination of the Two'
by Big Brother and the Holding Company
Featuring Janis Joplin
What do they hear?
Do they just eat
And poop
And sense danger
And fly?
Flying would be good
I envy the duck's their flight
Why do they hang out together?
Safety in numbers?
Or are they friends and family?
One duck is a few feet from the main cluster
A loner?
Ostracized?
Maybe a scout or a leader
Anyway....I like ducks
Of that there is no question

What I'd Like

I'd like to be a poet laureate
I'd be really good at it I bet
I'd read my poems at events and stuff
I wouldn't be rich but I'd have enough
I'd meet the president and say hello
I'd get paid a lot and have plenty of dough
My dreams will have all come true
And I'd never again feel blue
I'd like to be a poet laureate
When it happens my life will be set

We are the Incandescent Rays of Hope and Glee

Radio avocado nights of glistening pillows
The dance of pencils reckoning our future
Morbid leanings presupposing inherit peaches
The weathered look of an existential torpedo
We are all thus wondering with effervescent minds
Creating imaginings and imagining creations
Long afternoons of pleasant meanderings
Trees and glades and the sharp smell of flowers
Blossoming excitement as we explore endless spaces
Happy and strong and healthy and wise
We are eternal despite our passing
We are everywhere despite our limitations
Look at us from above so small
Look at us from below so large
Look at us from everywhere at once so wild
We are the incandescent rays of hope and glee
The bouncing dashes of everyday and the promise
Of all your tomorrows
Without end

I invincible

I was like a rock star
So full of my accomplishments
Rich with my youth
Believing in myself
I invincible
Watch my long beautiful blond hair
Hear my charming wit
Read my words by me
The writer
Buy me a drink
Laugh with me
Seduce me
You beautiful person
You've no idea what I am
You've latched on to
A raging bundle of neurosis
A tenuous psyche fragile and weak
But oh I can entertain
I can dazzle bedazzle
All my razzle all my personal pomp
(Such circumstance)
I bequeathed onto myself the mystic
Power of super self
And imbued it with psychosis
I invincible
Watch now
Watch me spin on the dance floor
Pretty cool stuff, eh?