How These Things Often End
They make their beds
They loose their heads
Tuesday, April 09, 2019
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)
(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:
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:
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
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