I Want It
I’m not sure
what a
small child
skipping across
a lawn &
a sparrow
bouncing along
a wire
have in
common but
whatever it is
I want it.
Category Archives: poems & short jabs
i want it
Filed under poems & short jabs
josie
Josie
Josie was an
overweight girl
with
dry stringy
hair &
slits for
eyes in a
round puffy face.
She worked at
Walmart after
high school &
ran the
cosmetics department.
Her advice to
women on
what to
apply to
look good
was always
on the money
& within a
few years she
went to
work for a
fashion firm.
She made up
models
for their
photo shoots
& when she
was done
they had a
warm glow
about them
& a
faraway
look in
their eyes.
At home alone
after work
in her
walk-up
apartment
Josie would
prepare
mounds of
food &
listen to
Beethoven.
She’d eat
at a
small table
looking over
the street
& then she’d
sit in
the dark
with the
phone in
her lap
until bedtime.
Filed under poems & short jabs
hallmarks of humanity
Hallmarks of Humanity
Hammered shut
hammered down
slam-dunked
& eviscerated
flash-flood
exonerated
griddle cakes
of delusion.
Dreary nuns
of chastisement
witch hunts &
cross burnings
the great
surge of
stupidity
the coarse
face of
coarse certainty.
Tattered dreams
in a
cosmic wind
burnt to
crisps
in a
sun flare.
Nobility is
not the
hallmark of
humanity
nor is
beauty.
They’re the
hallmarks of
wayward angels
who were
never meant
to be
born here.
I refuse
to put
my name
to the
document.
Filed under poems & short jabs
fear
Fear
Fear of flying.
Fear of heights.
Fear of fear.
The palpitating
heart.
Remembering
what you
want to forget,
forgetting
everything you
need to
remember.
Fear of that,
even while it’s
happening.
A word bank
stripped
bare in
broad daylight
by a
marauding
band of
sick feelings,
everyone
face-down
on the
floor without
the
courage to
stand up
& be
counted.
Fear of the
odds makers
the enforcers
the whole
blistered
casino of
chance.
Fear of love,
that it will
smell you
out &
devour you.
Fear of shame
fear of anguish
fear of ending
what is no
longer tolerable.
You pop
all the bubbles
with the
sharp point
of fear &
lay truth
out on a
morgue slab.
Mothers
cover their
children’s eyes
when you
pass
like a
tornado blowing
doors off of
root cellars.
Filed under poems & short jabs
fifteen minutes of fame
Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Everyone has
fifteen minutes
of fame said
Andy Warhol.
That was a
long time
ago when
things
lasted longer.
Filed under poems & short jabs
fixing crazies
Fixing Crazies
(Camille Claudel, a famous French sculptor, was incarcerated in an insane asylum thru two world wars from 1916 until her death in 1946. She was heard to say to Auguste Rodin: “Even on your death bed you’ll hesitate…”)
Truly crazy
people have a
direct tap
into a
savage truth,
& so we
lock them up
forever while
we fight
our wars.
Filed under poems & short jabs
