My Name Is John Lightly
I want
to confess
(not
to get
absolution
but to
prevent me
from taking
my secret
to the grave)
that for
decades
now I’ve
been writing
harlequin romances
under the
pseudonym
John Lightly.
Category Archives: poems & short jabs
my name is john lightly
Filed under poems & short jabs
animals in a zoo
Animals in a Zoo
When people
get old,
really old,
young people
look
at them
like they’re
animals
in a
zoo.
Filed under poems & short jabs
the easier softer way I.
The Easier Softer Way I.
He survived
an appendectomy
in a
Japanese
prison camp
with a
bottle of
rice wine
the only
anesthetic &
now they
tell him
he has a
drinking problem.
Filed under poems & short jabs
sweet aunt cassandra
Sweet Aunt Cassandra
“Three little
fishies in an
itty bitty
pool” sang
sweet Aunt
Cassandra
as she
sponged me
down with a
soapy facecloth
where I
sat four years
old &
naked on a
porcelain
drain board
with my
feet in a
sink of water.
“And they
swam &
they swam
all over
the dam!”
Cassandra sang
in her
lilting voice &
ran the
tips of
her fingers
rapidly up my
legs &
torso to
tweak my
nose &
give me
a hug.
Nowadays they’d
lock her
up &
put me in
foster care.
Filed under poems & short jabs
a sucker for dogs
A Sucker for Dogs
Out of
nowhere
someone
called me
up to
borrow
money to
put her
two dogs
down because
she’s
on the
street again
& can’t
handle them.
I shouldn’t
have answered
the phone
because now
I’ve been
asked to
finance a
dual execution.
I take
the dogs
instead a
huge arthritic
male lab
& a
female
rust-colored
lobo.
They
follow me
around the
house
with their
tails wagging,
sit on
either side
of me
when I’m
at the
computer &
watch somberly
from the
bathroom doorway
when I
take a piss.
Last night
the lab
tried to
climb in
bed with
me but
he couldn’t
get his
hind legs
off the floor.
Filed under poems & short jabs
