Tuesday, April 30, 2019

April 30th - Tombstones

Seven of Hearts - Tombstones

Cut flowers decay
In light autumn rain. After:
Moss thrives on cold stones!

Monday, April 29, 2019

April 29th - Easter Eggs

Nine of Hearts - Easter Eggs

Spring Festival

My nostrils flare with the memory of smells
White vinegar, aluminum, sulfurous eggs
The friction from muslin cloth still felt by
Fingertips stained blue and green and red
Small heart beating fast as I think of
All the early-morning sweets and all
Potential hiding places - unfathomable!

Sunday, April 28, 2019

April 28th - Pack Animals

Seven of Spades - Pack Animals

Abundance

The animal coughs and sputters
Struggling under weight of overflowing
Saddlebags, under your abundance

Your mule, mad-eyed and wheezing
Edges closer to the precipice while
You gaze at your treasures

Oh, the weight of your saddlebags!

April 27th - Subway Riders

Eight of Clubs - Subway Riders

R Train, Downtown 

We sway in unison
Looking at ads for mattress
Ads for dating apps
Whatever is outside
Scuffed Plexiglas windows
Anything but
The strange small woman
Shouting about Jesus

Saturday, April 27, 2019

April 26th - The Sandwich Question

Six of Spades - The Sandwich Question



Is A Hamburger a Sandwich?

How can you define anything?
What is Truth or
What is between us?
When you can’t even
Define a sandwich 

Thursday, April 25, 2019

April 25th - Statue at Lee Circle

Six of Hearts - Statue at Lee Circle

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Maybe

Drunk on the new
Drunk off a fifth of whisky
I sang in the streets 
Convinced I had found my twin
Convinced I was in love
With the smell of magnolia
With the near-morning dew
I galloped the streets smiling
Like some conquering northern general
Riding by the sad bronze face of
Robert E. Lee - a statue 
Staring into the past forever while
I sang in the sunrise streets
Of a new New Orleans

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

April 24th - Bodhisattvas

Queen of Clubs - Bodhisattvas

Bodhisattva at 3am

Welcome overstayed 
Jawing and wild-eyed 
You credit compassion
You have for all beings
The spontaneous
Glory of compassion!
Have you awoken?
Or are you just
Hanging around?

April 23rd - The Myth of Sisyphus

Two of Hearts - The Myth of Sisyphus 

Impotence

It was the clock on her bedside table
That you focused on after
You both agreed it was not 
A big deal and she tried to fall
Asleep and you just stared at a clock
Doing what it is designed to do
A clock with a second hand that never
Stops moving designed so the tip
Looks like Sisyphus pushing 
A boulder around and around
And you watched that 
Boulder turn until the sun’s
Presence proved to you 
You were not dreaming

Monday, April 22, 2019

April 22nd - The Myth of Entitlement Reform

Two of Spades - The Myth of Entitlement Reform




Entitlements

“The number-one way to be thrifty
Is to privatize benefits swiftly”
This is easy to say
When Americans pay
For you to retire at fifty



Image result for paul ryan sad

Sunday, April 21, 2019

April 21st - Abandoned Names

Eight of Spades - Abandoned Names

A sudden flood of panic
A stabbing sadness
Not felt for decades
Since before you were grown
You feel little again when
Your younger brother tells you to no
Longer use his childhood nickname

Saturday, April 20, 2019

April 20th - The Pythagorean Theorem

Three of Diamonds - The Pythagorean Theorem


Points II

The shortest distance between two points
Was clear from the start but still
We couldn't help but check our math
We couldn't let ourselves believe
A simple equation

Friday, April 19, 2019

April 19th - “The Divorce Capital of the World”

Queen of Spades - “The Divorce Capital of the World”



“The Divorce Capital of the World”

My grandmother lived outside Reno
For forty nights in 1963
In a place named “Washoe”
As far as you could get from Brooklyn
With women who spent full days crying
And those who laughed and couldn’t stop
Women from Biloxi and South Bend and
Other places she had never been to
Or ever thought to go
On some ranch 2000 miles from home
I struggle to imagine what she did
Or what she thought of other than her boys
As once again she stepped into the night
To light another cigarette
To cut the foreign desert air
And look up at the moon
That great waning gibbous
Which shined down on the Truckee River
Which made it almost look like gold 
-->

Thursday, April 18, 2019

April 18th - Mondo Kim's

Four of Spades - Mondo Kim's








Image result for mondo kims


Faces of Death

You could buy drugs there then
But you never thought to ask the men
Who checked your bags whose mouths
And yellow eyes never stopped moving
Sober you could lose yourself for hours
Frantic click-clack searching till
Your fingertips were black until you
Found an album that you weren’t afraid
To show your friend for her approval
Something that could soon become
Your favorite thing you’ve ever heard

And upstairs where you’d only go alone
To look but never buy the films made mainly
For their scenes of sliced-off fingers or popped eyeballs
Eye-popping bodies sweating and heaving
Cat-eyed Jezebels who’d stare at you from
Boxes you’d pick up and then pick up again
Pre-owned VHS tapes which forewarned that
You would see a person die – and sure
None of what you watched was real but still
It made the blood inside you pulse so fast
It made you close your eyes

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

April 17th - Artifice

Five of Diamonds - Artifice


Social

In the blue light
We continue to be
Empty as anyone
Can be empty

Voids cannot be filled
With artifice, illusions

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

April 16th - The Fall of Your Scene

Ten of Spades - The Fall of Your Scene

There once was a bar named “Poor Frank’s”
Where everyone flirted and drank
But exorbitant rent
Turned to patrons’ lament
As its structure now houses a bank


Monday, April 15, 2019

April 15th - Spirit Guides

Four of Clubs - Spirit Guides

Psychopomps

Under isolated streetlights
I forget if I am dreaming
My spirit disjoint from my body
Diffusing in the tactile summer air 
Which resonates
With hidden insect voices
The kind that sound
As if the world is clicking into place

Sunday, April 14, 2019

April 14th - Small Victories

Ace of Clubs - Small Victories


Small Victories IV

Cold feet
Touch colder floor
After you swore
You could not do it
Not today

April 13th - Bedford–Stuyvesant

Seven of Clubs - Bedford–Stuyvesant

Miss Wilma

She shuffles in old slippers
She pauses by the door
Barely enough room in her hallway 
Filled with sealed packages
Everybody’s packages
Gathered like found treasures
Held for now to keep them safe

Friday, April 12, 2019

April 12th - Never-Kings

King of Spades - Never-Kings



Le Grand Dauphin at Château de Versailles

Never once did he say
In all those endless years of
Hiding cards in parlor games
Cupping pairs of bare breasts
Drinking till he could not stand
Not once did he say
When he relived himself
On the palace walls
“I will never be king”

Thursday, April 11, 2019

April 11th - Zach Adler, 2005

King of Hearts - Zach Adler, 2005



Photo Credit Unknown

What is the half-life of a moment
When only an image can be
The thing preserved?

At was point does
A photograph become just
A photograph?
I have this record but -

How long will I remember
That I was mugging for laugh
What was out of frame
Or who I kissed
That night I was drinking 
Whisky ice and water?

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

April 10th - New Year’s Regrets

Nine of Spades - New Year’s Regrets

New Year’s Regrets

Kisses of course
Not ones given
Or taken but
Kisses imagined
And never born

Otherwise?
None!

Tuesday, April 09, 2019

April 9th - The Fall of the Monarchy

Ten of Hearts - The Fall of the Monarchy

How These Things Often End

They make their beds
They loose their heads

Monday, April 08, 2019

April 8th - New Mothers

Queen of Hearts - New Mothers


The New

We can only watch
The universe expand
And contract as you push
Against the ever-folding darkness
The edge of all things known
The abyssal terror of non-being
You push against and then
In rapturous joy illuminate
What once was void is
Suddenly now filled with light
You are space explorers!
We are but satellites

Sunday, April 07, 2019

April 7th - The Greater Good

Ace of Diamonds - The Greater Good

Special Interests

When you kiss me do it
With the passion of a union 
Leader rallying their workers
To reject the status quo 

But when you leave me treat me
Like you are a politician
Cripple me then promise me
It’s for the greater good

Saturday, April 06, 2019

April 6th - Heartland

Four of Hearts - Heartland

Made Your Bed In A Small Town

They got Mellencamp on the jukebox again
I wanna get up and change it
Cause I’ve seen it all in a small town
I can’t breathe in this small town
Gonna die in a small town
Land-locked and unknown

Friday, April 05, 2019

April 5th - The Tripartite Soul

Three of Spades - The Tripartite Soul


The City Burns

My soul is a city
Like the one described to Adeimantus
Dominion of Philosopher-Kings 
Who in their providence inspire
Baser subjects to protect the overseers
Or to lay foundation stones
Of temperance and regret

But, oh, when you stand close to me
Lovers of sights and sounds awake!
Armed men break rank
Break open doors locked from inside
Ecstatic, turn their blades upon those kings

Meanwhile on fertile fields below
The working class revolts

Thursday, April 04, 2019

April 4th - The Fall of Communism

Ten of Clubs - The Fall of Communism 


The Fall of Communism

Just before your sophomore year you spent
Nearly ninety dollars on Che Guevara T-shirts 
All in complementing earthy tones 
That armed you with a different daily 
Defiance to any teacher or other minor 
Autocrat who would dare disparagement
Who you would swiftly crush with
Your watertight - almost - treatise
On the the evils of capitalism
But no such challenge ever came
Your understanding parents though
Would sometimes ask politely that you
Turn down Evil Empire

But then -
What other outlet was presented for
Overwhelming geysers of compassion
Which first spouted on the day you noticed
Some disheveled woman on the sidewalk
Washing her body in stagnant water
Vocalizing scrambled thoughts trying to
Cool her chapped and leather shoulders
From the summer heat you couldn’t wait to come?
You were suddenly uncomfortable and frightened
Unworthy of the shoes you got for Christmas 
And even though you crossed the street
You told yourself, you knew deep down
There must be something better than - 
A better way than this

Wednesday, April 03, 2019

April 3rd - Clam Jerky

Six of Clubs - Clam Jerky



The Streets Count Down on Second Avenue

How distasteful these things
Would be out of context –
New York City stenches:
Subway heat and Subway sandwiches
The unwanted taxicab radio:
A series of “Doo-doo-doos”
Play tinny and weak, the refrain
Of “Semi-Charmed Life”

But with my head out the window
This rare resonant day I feel
Fifteen again – it’s April 1999
And my electric mouth is full
Of discontinued tastes, faint
Remembrances of inconsequential things
Nearly forgotten bodega treats:
Strange Japanese Chewing Gum, Clam Jerky



Tuesday, April 02, 2019

April 2nd - Angel Numbers

Three of Hearts - Angel Numbers

(Sequel to 4/27/2011)




The Scott Kazmir Trade, Revisited 

It wasn’t so bad after all 
Announces the remaining brother
Standing almost, swaying, spilling
On adjacent empty stool
Really wasn’t all that bad
He rubs his flaking naked scalp
Tips phantom cap lost long ago
Really not so bad if only
A crumpled paper damaged voice
That always sounds as if he’s yelling, but
If you just look
The inattentive barman never looks at him
If you only look
The well-heeled stiff-lipped patrons never look at him
Just look at his Angel numbers
There are only strangers now

Monday, April 01, 2019

April 1st - Helium

Ace of Hearts - Helium

-



Inert, Inflammable

Yet somehow I began
To float
On my first inhale
After my first
Glimpse of a Face
A sudden inward breath of air, and then
Shuddering intoxicating lightness
Heart and lungs
Electric - excited toes
And feet and body
Lifted from the earth
Imbued with something delicate
And new, a new
Weightlessness
I became
Fanatical believing
I could almost touch
The night-black of your firmament
Your incandescent Face of stars

Decades pass - I float here still
Desperate fingers stretching into darkness
Desperate toes ever-reaching for the earth below

Sunday, March 31, 2019

National Poetry Month 2019

Dear Readers,

Welcome (back)!

For the tenth year running - to celebrate the arbitrary designation of "National Poetry Month" - I will be writing and posting a poem here every day for the next thirty days.

Shout out, as always, to the prolific Jon Berger who helped inspire this project.


The rules:

- I have compiled a list of 54 prompts, each assigned to a different playing card


- Every day I will draw a card to select a prompt


- Based on that prompt I will write a poem that contains 280 or less characters


- By the end of the day I post it here


The complete list is below:



2cSandy Hook Truthers
2dTwo and a Half Men
2hThe Myth of Sisyphus
2sThe Myth of Entitlement Reform
3cThree Buck Chuck
3dThe Pythagorean Theorem
3hThe Angel Number
3sThe Tripartite Soul
4cSpirit Guides
4dSpirit Fingers
4hHeartland
4sMondo Kim’s Video and Music
5cDying Breeds
5dArtifice
5hHarmonicas
5sTofu Cream Cheese
6cClam Jerky
6dTV Repairmen
6hStatue at Lee Circle
6sThe Sandwich Question
7cBedford-Stuyvesant
7dFriends With Benefits
7hTombstones
7sPack Animals
8cSubway Riders
8dTaxi Drivers
8hWater Wings (TM)
8sAbandoned Names
9cChristmas Ornaments
9dHanukkah Gelt
9hEaster Eggs
9sNew Years Regrets
10cThe Fall of Communism
10dThe Fall of Capitalism
10hThe Fall of the Monarchy
10sThe Fall of Your Scene
JcBodhisattvas
JdSudden Death
JhDylan Going Electric
JsTwo-Spirits
QcSworn Virgins
QdCam Girls
QhNew Mothers
Qs“The Divorce Capital of the World”
KcBurger King (Revisited)
KdThin Elvis
KhZach Adler, 2005
KsNever-Kings
AcSmall Victories
AdThe Greater Good
AhHelium
AsImpermanence
Green JokerThe Analog World
Black JokerThe Digital Word


Thanks to all of you friends and bots who have read over the last decade.

Poem #290 will be posted here sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the remaining hours of National Hexagonal Awareness Month(?)

- Z