Smith poems written in February, decent output since Iwas recovering from major surgery.
2024.2.1 – Down on one knee
2024.2.3 – Winter sun warm through window
2024.2.9 – Notes During 9 Days Hospital After Being Gutted
2024.2.10 – Man I’m zinging
2024.2.15 – Oh Great Guru on mountain top
2024.2.18 – Riding off into the sunset
2024.2.19 – We live before we think
2024.2.20 – From water
2024.2.21 – I stare long into my black coffee
2024.2.22 – Almost dusk
2024.2.23 – Some days you could use a little extra edge
2024.2.25 – A light here
2024.2.26 – Large old rescue dog at my feet
2024.2.29 – Lotta rooster
~ ~ ~
Down on one knee
trusting in technology
trying to get home
~ ~ ~
Winter sun warm through window
paints my leg in light leaf and shadow
dancing up old man’s thigh
Sun on skin
skin on bone
nought between
Much of me on hospital floor
in back alley bin
night soil
Yet day dawns
slow
in pain
My breath remains
one more awake gained
death gamed
In I.C.U.
after tube pulled from throat
and pain pump attached
I kept pushing Dilaudid
which’d always worked
but not now
Saw Charon’s Crossing
boat looked nice
water forgetful
But no
Large Enso circle
formed in air
looked wherever I looked
Then, inside circle
Keith Richard’s face fades in in b&w
congratulates me into the Survivor’s Club
And dissolves
leaving pain
and smile
~ ~ ~
Notes During 9 Days Hospital After Being Gutted
Quick couple clicks of Dilaudid
Elvis’ favorite drug
not doing much
Death is a cautious creature
prefers unlocking doors
Circular face appeared on suppy cabinet
b&w 3/4’s Keith Richards
welcoming me to Survivors Club
followed by tinny wail of David Bowie’s Fame
and Leonard Cohen’s Fingerprints
maybe the Dilaudid’s working after all
Shadows from unknown angles
showing strange numbers without reason
Been hearing wife’s voice
explaining our situation out in the hall
but she’s home
not here
maybe I’m hearing her prayers
Ride the pain train for the famous
fame for the rest
Must be considered
I’m seeing what’s considered differently
Six days since solids
five days clear liquids
first sip black caffeine and chicken broth
pure ecstacy
If I don’t piss
they put catheter back in
don’t poop, don’t go home
Wife 27 years younger
stealing time from stressed work line
to be with me in hospital
in case I die
Writing poem notes
sets off alarm from taped oxygen measurer
poetry is dangerous
4:20 a.m.
hit the Dilaudid button
Elvis would be proud
Keith Richards’ blessing appearance
wife’s phantom prayers in hall
keep the current going
Some suffering is spent
crawling to the future
pain price to come
It’s a downhill slope
mind gets wiser, body weaker
the cost of continuing
5th day after gutting me
imbibing caffeine and Dilaudid
rare Cleveland sunshine
Pain grows
blossoms into brilliance
backstabs my own
In hospital room
shivering with cold
wife gives me sweater off her back
Buy now!
Get one free!
Guarranteed money back!
late night TV
Gotta tell you
weary, hurt, and worry
not best place to be
How long o body
can spirit hold on
and still be worth it
Have to live long enough
to see Trump the Feces
finally flushed
Crashing into body pain
climbing out and writing
Smith is disaster artist
There’s always small print
trying to balance my pain meds
with pooping
Swollen scrotum
not enough room between thighs
and size
Black coffee from top
suppository up bottom
jumpstart my machine
Wife calls
asks how I am
I weep
Nurse comes in
asks if she can look at my scrotum
tell her she’s the first to ever ask that
we laugh
tell her there’s an old country swing song
Big Balls In Cow Town
she says I know the most interesting things
Glad I’m taking notes
all this is what the mind wipes
so flesh can continue
They once called me stoneface
today talking luck in wife and life
I weep four times
Overhear my roommate on phone
old thin small black man
“This is a big one Luke
they got me this time”
Hour before dawn
and next hospital pain pill
trying to find my way
Stuck in hospital
till I feces flush
so I do my doo-doo duty
Bio me
bio you
biome we
I shit my pants
doc says go home
I weep
Last day turns on me
cable TV quits
food turns bad
comes late
Gotta grim and grit it
as I leak my lizard
“This somber season has its solicitudes”
wife says, sipping hot coffee
Pull battered flesh
from bind of bed
into damn of day
It gets basic down at the lifeline
no baby Buddha bouncing in a box
I’m half human
not the good half
just the pain
Doctor says she put her hand in my chest
and my heart beat against it
Each pain’s passing
shows hundreds lurking below
Gut cut from pubis to sternum
50 staples holding belly together
pure will fighting high pain
but soon now will be then
I have to dance on the leaves
sing with the shadows
~ ~ ~
Man I’m zinging
too much CAFFEINE stomping my lizard
plus wig’s tightened considerably
considering tokes taken gummies infused
zing zanging my Zig Zagging
tanking yet more coffee
riding the red line
remembering back
wife and I picked coffee in Mexico
on steep side of mountain
above the clouds
river sounds somewhere below
lizards fucking on stump
pineapples growing from ground
vanilla vines hugging coffee tree trunk
like the snake sniffing Eve
so tired at end of day
I almost fell off mountain climbing back to bed
on busride home stop
stood on a boulder bulging from the mountain
and pissed on the white clouds below
they say function sum junction
for max consumption
or somethin’
at least that’s my assumption
but wife and I’ve met angels more than once
seen some slime
have new angles on meat and mind
~ ~ ~
Oh Great Guru on mountain top
what say you to us lower lot?
Nothing is always
and always is always nothing soon
In sun and shadow, rough and smooth
whatever your angle, you snooze you lose
~ ~ ~
Riding off into the sunset
82 mph
one hand on the wheel
low on gas
no destination
just enough time to get there
~ ~ ~
We live before we think
run upstream, foul the water
dash down, drink
~ ~ ~
From water
to land
to atoms
to ashes
we went from pointy sticks
to nuclear frission
awfully fast
for folk who understand neither value
nor mission
Error Error willful one
404 logic not found
go to 420
~ ~ ~
I stare long into my black coffee
it stares deep into me
it goes to sleep
~ ~ ~
Almost dusk
rooster still crowing sun up
clouds 1, chicken 0
Okay flux, here we go
into the body of the body beast
Rooster cries “rise”
chainsaw growls “die”
both wolves feed
Why does day run on so
why isn’t sleeping time longer?
Underwear is put away
some hanging things are hung
my work here is done
~ ~ ~
Some days you could use a little extra edge
like another year of sleep
or an endless cup of big black coffee
with a sticky cinnamon bun
on a quiet street in Amsterdam
back before the plague
before the dead mom and the new live wife
who’se likely saved my life at least twice
so far physically
more literally
the why and how of how I’m still here
who the flux knows
but she’s part of it
plus me being old bird tough
and of course luck
always luck
lots and lots of luck
and maybe just maybe me making the gods laugh
often, deep, long, and loud
for which I’m grateful
proud
and, as always
a fool in fuel of frisson
~ ~ ~
A light here
a light there
a lot of dark between
~ ~ ~
Large old rescue dog at my feet
wish I could be as content
or prance in such joy at walk time
not sure which of us is creakier
has worse arthritis
our main differences are
kids love to see him
and I don’t shit in the street
~ ~ ~
Lotta rooster
little sun
life in Cleveland
~ ~ ~