WALKING ON THIN ICE

Smith poems April 2025

Smith poems April 2025

2025.3.1 – Train moan means load of sins going
2025.3.2 – Silence stands there
2025.3.3 – They got their words
2025.3.4 – Trapped in neck collar
2025.3.5 – Lotta smart people
2025.3.5 – I put on mask
2025.3.7 – 5 years now crowing comes and goes
2025.3.8 – Muy mucho mas alas
2025.3.10 – Life is good
2025.3.11 – 8th week of hard collar
2025.3.12 – Got some pieces
2025.3.12 – Beat third eye open once
2025.3.15 – Small whee
2025.3.15 – Too many unlesses in life
2025.3.18 – I’m tired and fleathered
2025.3.18 – For a lot of folk
2025.3.19 – Same Old Sisyphus Told
2025.3.19 – There’s matter. There’s anti-matter
2025.3.21 – Unstable
2025.3.22 – Please mister Proprietor
2025.3.22 – I’m a bad reputation
2025.3.23 – White clouds
2025.3.23 – Best pray
2025.3.26 – I sail the four C’s
2025.3.29 – Gaia gazes over her garden
2025.3.29 – Nothing matters
2025.3.30 – Hoping for unicorn
2025.3.31 – I’m the package deal

~ ~ ~

Train moan means load of sins going
rooster crow sez time’s flowing
here it’s visits in the night
with flashlights and megaphones

“Kinda weird, isn’t it?:
What?
“The gestalt.”
Not as weird as the gestalt and pepper.

What’s the square root of evil?
which part shall we avail?
and what pray tell
shall we tell the prey?

~ ~ ~

Silence stands there
ear sits here

Heart?
somewhere between

I know where music is born
perhaps first flow

9 months warm juice womb
heart bump-bump bump-bumping along

Singing the Mom-Love song
long, firm, fluid, strong

Taut belly’s skin drum
picking up word scraps rapt thrum

Reverbing foot stomps branching breaks
lightning smash dirt thump takes

Get a rock band going in utero
or maybe cool jazz combo

Once born through dark to light
ready for chant of tribal fire light

9 month song
soundtrack life

~ ~

They got their words
I got mine
I tell truth
they seem to be lying

There were free birds
once in my youth
helped me find
the slightly less obtuse

But what’s the use

Lizard brain
fueled and flying
skills itch
robs the dying

Pretty plain
in down and seeing
wake is pain
heaven sleeping

Let’s give a cheer
for flee fight feed flux
mind peek soul seek
need lotta luck

~ ~ ~

Trapped in neck collar
tied to wheel
endless round nothing follow
grinding corn to meal

Used to roll rock up hill
watch it rebound down
testing will
freaking frown

I know I’m clown
at least worth laugh
as for these unsun clouds
you don’t know the half

Or quarter
dime
eighth
?

(‘eighth’ looks odd
even though it’s even
but thanks to Cheech & Chong
keeps my peepers steamin’)

Anyway here we go
a-go-go getting gone
fast or slow short or long
gotta keep singing song

~ ~ ~

Lotta smart people
saying lotta smart things
so why so much dumb come along?

Some sorta reverse curse of Cassandra
where everything they say is wrong
yet everyone believes anyway?

Bottom line

There is
and there is not
plus a whole lot more between

And that’s just the beginning

~ ~ ~

I put on mask
I see wise
they see ass

~ ~ ~

5 years now crowing comes and goes
one rooster at a time

(though once we had 2)

first next door
then one down valley
next one one block over
followed of course by one cross alley

each crows days weeks months
goes silent
disappears
into coyote stomach
or stew pot
or old age dirt

and for weeks
months
silence reigns
as much as unsilent silence can

until new braggadocio
new crowing calls new sun into new sky
new clouds cavort
and new fairy tales start however Grimm
as circle cycles
cycles clone
and in group or alone
round and round we roam

so may as well let crow go
we’re here
whatever here is

perhaps flesh fizz?

~ ~ ~

Muy mucho mas alas
what happens in the brain
stays in the brain

Unfair to judge
way-back-then from right-now
yet I do

I go this way I go that
might be glitter
might be fact

As for the Painesville signs
I don’t need them
I know pain

Know there’s meat in team
not much team in meat
especially when it’s time to eat

~ ~ ~

Life is good
a cup of coffee
a fancy hard cookie
a broken neck
opiates to mask the pain
winter maybe going
spring sneaking a peek
to see if it wants to come
in this ruthless political climate
where once was geeze-leave-it-to-Beaver
and his cleavageless June ma
now’s junkyard dog ripping your throat
chewing your spawn
pooping kin
but what the heck
just a phase
nothing to worry about
enough misery and wailing and dying
this too will pass
and some of us will remain
and for awhile
we’ll be more thoughtful
do the oughtful
make it fairer
for a . . . while
before the wile returns
and innocent blood fang earns

here we go round the human tree
the human tree the human tree

guess that includes you and me

~ ~ ~

4th week of hard collar
round broken neck
collecting daily odors
body pain odors
body sweat odors
walking labyrinth odors
old-man-breaking-down odors
I smell like a large pile of old dust
mixed with mustiness of dead mouse
after its flesh rot’s gone
dry dust Smith
dissipating through the ages
from dust I came
dusty I go
gone with the wind
down some new winding road
to . . . where?

why?

~ ~ ~

Got some pieces
but can’t find the puzzle

call the polices
but they’re late to the huddle

garden Nome Alaska
is nowhere near Albuquerque

but hafta ask ya
where’s the Bugs Bunny?

they say laugh a day
keeps depression away

but apples scare doctors
or so sez my proctor collegist

gotta run the circle
but I’m stuck in this square

smoking powerful purple
so I’m getting sum where

if this’s all there is
I’m not your apologist

coffee roiling it
stirring nowhere to go

me full fast
reality slow

what more can I ask?

who gnosis
where the time goeses?

~ ~ ~

Beat third eye open once
with ice and concrete
but doctors washed the blood away
and sewed me blind again

Was that love?

I live long
and learn a little
which is more than I show
yet know those in pain lash out
and even bad dogs think they’re good

Lot of not-nice lurking
looking for lunch

But angels too
kings of heart and the lighter arts
help us glow the goo
like Moses parting molasses in the snow
and baby Buddha showing go
depends on do

Some men tug behind
while sisters pull ahead
waiting abyss of bliss
after this

Me too

~ ~ ~

Small whee
large for me
outside in first sun
since fall fell
cuppa coffee
THC’ing body’s bruise
with gummy glue
sipping slow
toking smok
soaking sun
close eyes
to hot
redlemonyelloworange
glow
flowing go
as I square the circle
circle the square
in temporary boundary
ancient quandary
going koan

~ ~ ~

Too many unlesses in life
need new lease on leash

How sappy to be happy
in sad times and crimes
but you know
go’s never full high
never full low
but brights and bitters between
you can laugh with us at the village well
or scream your doom alone in room
hell yell
yet bads stay bad
but good still sneaks between

your scheme your scene
jelly bean

~ ~ ~

I’m tired and fleathered
from turbulent whethers

My coping mechanism
needs coping

Here’s hoping

~ ~ ~

For a lot of folk
I’m the bad side of life
been to prison
got a second wife
used to rob
used to drink
even worse I used to think

once I bet on help hope hot
but that led to Gordian knot
not knot now knot not then
guess we play the game again
as rich scratch itch to suck us dry
controlling who’s want and why
and maybe where
who knows
who cares

“I used to” Mother Earth shares
but beware
that’s past tense there

back to me
I done my wrongs
when I was young and not as strong
now do less
and so much more
making mess as moral whore

I kill to eat
consume the dead
until becoming meat in end

I used to dread
before my current skinny bones
its few sinews
faint muscles tones
helped me fade the here and gone
parsing foam of poem

don’t yet know the end
my friend
no going home alone

shalom

~ ~ ~

Same Old Sisyphus Told

Get up
start again
roll the wheel for real
round the road
up the hill
down to break in gain
new old pain

but ha!!!
is all in your head
alive and dead
illusions they say
as rent they make me pay
if game of eat I want to play

then there’s shelter
plus tax on that
and bread and better
if you’re top of the stack
they’ll paint your sister
in tart and tramp
make sure your mister
misses champ

words run round
words stack high
words by rich bound in lie

++gods above clods below
choose love or money go

said my piece walk my way
there’s never ease for we prey
but what the hey that’s the key

gotta try walking lie to lie

I’m flailing here
wailing away
got nothing and way too much to say

~ ~ ~

There’s matter, there’s anti-matter
there’s cool, there’s Elon Musk

Can’t invite Trump over
don’t have enough toilet paper
and we’d have to count the silverware

As for Vance
don’t ask
just flush

~ ~ ~

Unstable
bit unable
yet stumble on

body crumbles
mind muddle mellows
smarts humble

not one of the fellows
at most an extra
bumbling be

I run here and there
explains bits with flair
then turn in flee

you may extrapolate
but that’s been my abstract
in a nut skull

~ ~ ~

Please mister Proprietor
I can’t find Hope
your shelves appear empty
you no longer stock?
has it all been bought?
Or’s out there awaiting reentry?

‘Come on kid, don’t be a dope
hope’s a rope’ll kill ya
it’s do or die
fake worthy whys
and try try try try try
jolly cash lies’

Guy’s got a point
I hate to anoint
it’s less leapers I guess
we’re meant to bless
than souls repair
and savor

Of course my purse
carries different flavor
bear the pain
work the gain
absolve your guilt
of brain’s failure

Most ain’t your fault
but rest of arc’s alt
you gotta pay for
gather your sufferings
command karma whore
not naughty nothings

Let’s head out for more

~ ~

I’m a bad reputation
seeking good situation
in this bargain bin of unbetter buys

I look into life
it looks back
we go on

I pick my own pockets
hide wares in DNA lockets

~ ~ ~

White clouds
caught by bare branches
placeholder for coming leaves

Bit of old slip slide rip tide
ripples the ought-to
of saving time

Sewing clip of night
to coming day
does not longer make

Hate to say

Pace is relative
in this outlaw race
of time and space

~ ~ ~

Best pray
cuz they say
horns of fire
winged revenge
strictures of strange
old cootie clutter
mothers for hire
the shame in your gutters
the love in your lies
the loss in your lectures
the slur in your slime
all dance in madness
working round wise
circling bare
cackling gladness
in brains
in our brains
sliming where tortoise
scares hare
preyer

so there

~ ~ ~

I sail the four C’s
concrete, car, caffeine, cannabis
on and off the omnibus

Crash bang brooms gloom
lightens life blooms room
ozones ooze zoom

You die
unless you live

On the other gland
slow’n’quiet’s grand
perhaps the better plan

What do I know
I neither stay nor go
way more fade than glow

Living, dying, all a game
won to will, woe to blame

~ ~ ~

Gaia gazes over her garden
and we’re looking a lot like weeds

from there to here
and no back again

weedkiller’s coming

~ ~ ~

Nothing matters
and everything matters
that’s the way we go

Matter of matter matters
anti-matter’s alone

~ ~ ~

Hoping for unicorn
don’t make it happen
but our real life dragons
are real life thorns
in the sides of our freedom
to wonder about
not hearing treason
if we happen to shout
don’t get me wrong
I know ill’s ill
way too strong
to be fixed by word will
but won’t
don’t
yet still
got to start somewhere
push rock to hill
art to heart
spin the wheel
for better deal
for you
for me moaning in my minor key
and futurity

~ ~ ~

I’m the package deal
even bring my own demons
my own big wheel
I’m cross
I’m rugged
I’m old
but no rugged crosshairs on me
my light comes from darkness
dark from light
wrong lie to right
we have symptoms
lack of shame
short sight
fearfright
days mostly sitcom
weren’t for the blood
and hungry teeth
how the heck did we get here
slogging through the slug
looking for the plug
to pull
or
were we here all along
and didn’t know it
cause of P.R. slogans
All Hail the Thief
flog the grief
flux relief

sheesh

I gots no answers
lost my antlers
uncles too

~ ~ ~

9 poems, 10 fotos, my Medusa’s Kitchen monthly feature #112

 

“—Medusa, thanking Cleveland’s Steven B. Smith for fine poetry, for which he stuck his neck out (with unpleasant results)! Progress is being made, though, in the healing department, he says, and we are all grateful, as Winter turns to Spring today in this hemisphere of ours…” – Kathy Kieth, publisher / editor

9 poems, 10 fotos, monthly feature #112

https://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/03/payment-due.html