Sparkling Fruit
Water’s burn
quenches mineral thirst
frees yearn
Fluid husbands
two embraces
Fire leaves gas, ash
sickle’s attainment
Water
adds to the wetted mass of
suckling tree roots
Nurtured in mud,
woody lotus
tall seed dapples taut
sparkling fruit
~ Lady
Writing a poem-a-month through Leah Muellar’s Poetry Feast. She’s giving daily seeds.
~ ~ ~
Mistakes
It’s always Miss Takes
never Mister Takes
or missed aches
though mist aches as well
as does misgivings from missed takes
for vampires never miss stakes
while vegans may miss steak
in wake ache
of gold ring miss/take
– 4.1.2018
~ ~ ~
Sisyphus Play
I play this game
where I get up before dawn
sit in dark brooding
sipping coffee
taking a toke if I’m lucky
pop pain pill
trudge to mountain
see which rock I’ve been assigned
which worthless route up which hell hill
and begin the begin again
roll rock up
watch it slip back down
roll rock
lose rock
aim’t no rock ‘n’ roll
just me up here and loss below
day after day
again and again
pain in brain
pain in body
pain in pay
today… and today… and today
forever and ever
anen
– 4.2.2018
~ ~ ~
Resurrection Ritual
Low hope
body closer to dark than dawn
lids locked
eyes blurred
bone bruised in battle
spirit sagged
flesh failed
I crawl broken before dawn
from bed to sink to stove to coffee
in resurrection ritual
worthy of Doctor Frankenstein
or the unlovely Lazarus
for rise in radiance
as holy caffeine
rolls stone to new daze
and second cup
– 4.3.2018
~ ~ ~
Zenless
Thin id
Reduce grandiosity
Less more
Everything is nothing at all
– 4.4.2018
~ ~ ~
D.C. Diet
Government assembly diets
of gimme politicians
the lowest of the low
corporate slime
(but I repeat myself)
scum buckets come
with hands out-splayed
morals delayed
truths un-sayed
from both sides their forked tongues
greed belly jiggling
small dick dripping
birthing their bromides
of racial crimes
and culturcide
as they pad their less
with our more
hating happy
killing healthy
stealing unsteathily
our daily food
our nodes of hope
shouting nope to every maybe
with force of might
from mostly white
mostly men
mostly fat and ugly
paying for sex with our dime
they whine
of changing times
sit in theft
bereft
shitmen with greasy lips
expanding hips
rich
old
white
men
whose best use is fertilizer
so
if you see a rich man drowning
toss him a big bag of pennies
a die it for the diet
and their unbalanced books of red
– 4.4.2018
~ ~ ~
Brain Drain
Trump’s brain is not on vacation
is neither particle nor wave
might be a vacuum
or immoral virus
is as small as his hands
dumb as dim
it’s said no one’s home within
I’d say his heart’s hard
if he had one
instead of Big Bankrupt signs
in chest and head
and yet I don’t want him dead
wish him long life
so he can drown in history’s sum
of his immoral dumb
and dumber sons
crooked daughter
hostage wife
what a life
tacky gold stained walls
rich white trash
making an ash of himself
and us
what’s the fuss
just one more rich fat fuck
pushing his luck
stuffing his pockets with our buck
I wish him slow syphilis
and endless humiliation
this man accused of raping his wife
raping a date
raping a 13 year old girl
do I hate
perhaps I do
but I’m more aghast at his crooked past
and present
may he suffer through and through
and if he’s down
I’d kick him good
again and again for the hood he is
the good he isn’t.
– 4.5.2018
~ ~ ~
I Gots U Babe
Wife usually cooks
and workwebs a lot for little,
much more stress than bucks.
I quit work 12 years ago,
she’s 27 years behind me,
has 15 to go.
I do dishes, laundry, catbox,
errands, make some soup, this n that
to ease her squeeze.
Both poets, artists, fotagrafers,
we share words, ideas, objects,
each the peach.
Laugh with and at,
croon over cat,
always at bat.
Our differing looks
soften brittle,
lift luck.
These 12.5 years so far
are 27% of her life, 17% of mine,
100% ours.
Share time, place, grace, rhyme;
don’t know why
but it seems to work.
– 4.6.2018
~ ~ ~
Silver Lined
On street unlit in town unknown
nowhere here to somewhere gone
looking for the light
after hours over
time moved on
somewhere
nowhere
down the line
awaiting the unarrived
grateful for disaster’s delay.
I see sad women
husbands fallen from hope
exit failing houses
to meet at the well
where forgetting pain
they laugh in gossip giggle
wetting buckets
warming heart
knowing they are not alone.
Darkness sparkles stars
harsh with heart
pearls of diamond night.
– 4.7.2018
Cat & Dog
Cat was on the feather
Showing me where the feather was, dear
“Did you catch a cat?”
Barely, like one of those quantum particles,
snapping my fingers,
hard to hold
…
Our cat knows
which one is the prey
in our current game
I saw a woman
play Three Card Monte with her dog
she’d put a dog treat under one of the cups
go swish, swish, swish, mix them up,
and the dog would point his nose at
the correct cup every time
and eat the treat
While this is impressive
it’s not quite as impressive as it looks
because she cheated;
she kept her right hand
on the cup with the treat,
never took it off,
went swish swish swish swish swish and
always kept her hand on the treat cup
The dog just watched it go
back and forth
and never left the right hand
When she stopped
he would touch his nose to it;
he would get the treat
…
Instead of a fireplace
we low-class have a water tank
there’s usually 10 seconds
between the bubble burps in the aquarium filter
but sometimes it’s 11 or 12
I am a wee odd.
For example, I count how long it takes you
from locking the door
to becoming visible in the parking lot
It used to be 31 seconds
“You mean you count?”
Yes, 1001, 1002, 1003
It used to take you 31 seconds to get out
and then 41 seconds because you were cold and you were carrying more stuff
and recently it was 51 seconds
and I started thinking, ‘this is getting
too long but you’ll probably stop at
the mail box,’ and I saw you and you had
a package in your hand.
If it had been more than 60 seconds,
I would have come down and checked
“Wow, that’s very nice”
I work what grid I can, he said
black cat, red feather, white line.
~ Smith & Lady