Devotion
He devoted
1/3 of
his life
to a
lost cause
that started
off as
a baby.
Category Archives: poems & short jabs
devotion
Filed under poems & short jabs
parenthood
Parenthood
Imagine my
surprise when
I learned
that Djuna
Barnes was
my biological
mother &
my biological
father was
a Parisian
organ grinder.
Filed under poems & short jabs
yakity-yak
Yakity-yak
The sound
of many
human voices
talking at
once is
an affront
to nature.
Filed under poems & short jabs
getting ready to die
Getting Ready to Die
Don’t worry
about getting
ready to die.
When you
die you
die &
that means
your were
ready.
Filed under poems & short jabs
living in a house of cards
Living in a House of Cards
We all
yearn to
be winged
& feathered
to play
on the
wind to
soar into
the sun.
But we
live in
a house
of cards
with pigeons
on the
roof &
each time
a pigeon
takes flight
the whole
house trembles.
Real despair
comes from
the absence
of danger.
No one’s
hurt when
a house
of cards
comes
tumbling down.
We wander
thru the
disarray &
try to
put a
winning
hand together.
We lie
alone in
bed at
night &
listen to
the pigeons
coo, staring
at the
ceiling
at the
Ace of
Spades the
King of
Hearts or
a simple
deuce of
clubs.
We know
there’s more
to life
but we
don’t know
how to
get it.
Filed under poems & short jabs
substitute
Substitute
When my father was one of six children
& the bills were piling up,
his father walked out the door
& never came back.
The new father was Irish
& feisty,
had a strong sense of justice
& no education.
He could lift a broom
by its handle
with ten books piled on the bristles,
used the belt freely,
could not stand a lie,
was obeyed but seldom loved.
A pipe fitter by trade,
he spent the rest of his life
in the bowels of a big New York hotel,
descending daily into heat and darkness.
He died one April,
a shriveled substance of gray,
the hospital windows open,
trees & flowers in bloom &
the cries of stick ball
on the street below.
The last thing to die
was a question in his eyes,
answered by my father’s tears,
his great head descending
to the shock-white sheets.
(Originally published in Vagabond #30, April, 1979.)
Filed under poems & short jabs
