Hard Lessons

One day, carefree
testing boundaries
the next, mutilated
splattered on the side of the road.
Two friends killed instantly
Ziffel 18.
and Gary 19.

Out driving and partying
the four of them
in the back seat, Ed
escaped with a broken arm
and Woody
with hardly a scratch.

I was 15
it was May
still signing my own excuses
when I got the phone call.
They’re dead!
Hit Head On
their VW bug
squashed
by a drunken black caddy.

Time blurred
spiraled and
in due course
crystallized while
hitchhiking on the interstate
600 miles away from home.
It will be alright
in the morning
whispered
in my ear and
became my mantra
on the eve

of my detention.

Rendition-acrostic

Rough shocking film
Elaborating on the torture of immigrants
Names misspelled
Demand confessions from
Innocent engineers snatched off flights
Threatened-- forced to confess to heinous crimes they did not commit
Ignored as collateral damage--another
Offering heaped on the sacrificial altar
Negotiating an evil trend.

Maneuvering Steep Ledges

Shh!!
Yesterday’s verse
is fast asleep
tucked under the cover
of Vista’s keep.
Windows 7 could not comprehend
the niggling
night
of a poet on the mend.

Secrets pop out
demand details shared
scary snapshots
a youth caught scared.
Wading through
past lives
in galoshes stand
trudging through
the muck, of skeletons damned.

Murmuring
passages
sticky
snake
through rocky
corridors
demand
decisions make.

Shh!! Asleep
for the moment
in another lair
vexing this writer
as I judge the crosshairs.
Dare we enter
into this divisive pact
or let it die
in the past
with its victims intact?

Beating Heart

A constant
thump, thump-- thump, thump
known
to an anonymous composer.
the signature still visible
inside the dollhouse of dreams
just outside the babble
of the birth canal.

Pumping vibrant color
into a being
comprised mostly of water.
Ever faithful
vital force
broadcasting a blue spirit
through tiny narrow passageways.
Flooding a maze
of endless corridors.
Racing towards the outer limits
and returning back
to the source-- time after time.

Word Bag-Fun

Use these words to write a poem.
(Jammin’ salmon crisis early simple damaged fender accordion rose python grant clock crayon sunset rooster bell)


My damaged python Rose
endured some crushing blows.
This crisis could not predict
to time these reptiles slick
She wrapped her thick green form
around an acc-ord-ian
and that was when the clock
outside my Kitchen stopped.
Its simple arithmetic
for a python to constrict
when roosters ring the bell
for dinner time is hell
and sunsets early night
is crayoned cherry bright.
So grant this jammin rhyme
A reason to unwind
While I go mount this fender
back on the Ford tail ender.

Word Bag-Ku

(Jammin’ salmon crisis early simple damaged fender accordion rose python grant clock crayon sunset rooster bell)


Jammin’ Salmon splash
Swim into white water sweats
Pajama party.

Simple damaged fender
Suspended from garage beam
Obscure metal art.

Anaconda’s squeeze
accordion to flat tone
Python melody.

Salmon sunsets grin
As Burmese python swallows
Live alligator.

Daylight Savings Time
Local rooster validates
Mother Nature’s clock.


Thanks for the flowers-Alice, 'Ilima and Jenny!!!
Spider Mums unfold
Super white fingers poke space
Extend for poet.

Easy Come, Easy Go

I sometimes think there must
be a higher power or a
great spirit
watching over me,
just the fact
that I am still here
retired at 43 and doing
what I want living in paradise
is evidence enough.

After all, I could be a drug addict or an alcoholic
living under a bridge in New York off of Route 32
somewhere between Kingston
and New Paltz
freezing my ass off
looking through garbage cans at Mickey D's. for unfinished scraps
or begging for spare change
on the corner of Main and Broadway
outside the Trailways Bus Station just to buy a cup of Joe to keep my
fingers from turning blue turning the respectable

stomachs of the
good people who have to work and pay taxes
and who would gag from the sight and the stench
of the
likes of someone like me.

Instead I chose to have
a good life.
One that I earned
because nothing

came easy
or quick.
I had to move my own mountains.
Plow my own fields without any fancy tractors
or high tech equipment
that would have broken down
at inconvenient times and then had to fix myself, because no one else could.
Scrape and save
and then save some more.
Do without
so my child could have.

Easy come easy go
is an excuse I don’t use because none of it was easy.
Easy come, easy go is for snot nosed

spoiled brats with too much spare time and too much plastic.

Who don’t even know how to keep their nose clean

let alone have a clue about what hard or easy is

and that’s all
I've got to say
about that.