April 2014 K Poems

The tale of the snoring man

I caught a woman who I was in love with

sneaking out of her bedroom in the middle

of the night with her pillow. Where are you

going I asked her through tired and suddenly

self-pitying eyes? Why are you and your pillow

leaving me? You snore she said. I cannot sleep

with your snoring. We discussed the matter

the next morning and she told me that she thought

that I might have sleep apnea and that I should

get a sleep study done. I was never rested.

I could never get enough sleep. I was always

napping but never feeling anything but tired.

The sleep doctor confirmed that I had sleep apnea

and I have slept with a mask over my nostrils

attached to a hose that is attached to a c-pap

machine that emits air ever since not really a very

romantic thing for the one next to me to lay down

with but at least she can sleep.

First smell of the morning

should be coffee, not dog piss,

but this morning when I opened

my office door, which is where

my dogs sleep, my nostrils were

assaulted by urine. The stench

is not unlike the one you find

on downtown elevators or in alley ways;

but those smells are created by bums

men without a home to piss in

who are not allowed to use “public”

restrooms not by dogs who are

supposed to love you.

A writer who's not writing.

A baker without dough.

A banker without money.

A lawyer with no clients.

A doctor with no patients.

A mechanic with no broken vehicles.

A priest without a church.

A tennis player without a racquet.

A poet with no words.

A doctor with no patients.

A world without peace and love.

Bully Bully

It never occurred to me

to bring a gun or knife

to school and start randomly

attacking my fellow students

but I was bullied from

the sixth grade through

the eleventh grade by

the fellow who wound up

being captain of the

high school football team.

He enlisted the help of others

they taunted me

made up songs about me

spread rumors about me.

It was an awful time.

Coffee on my lips in the morning

turns me on like my lover does

when she kisses me. My coffee is sweet

like my lover's lips; stevia and her saliva

seeming to have much in common.

She still sleeps while I am wide awake

at 3 a.m. having woke the dogs and cats

myself drinking a cup of coffee and anticipating

finishing the book that I am reading. The pig

has taken over on the animal farm.

The weather around here is weird

we have the heat on in mid April

my love had to bring her seedlings

in to the kitchen and I had to gather

up my cats and bring them in from

the cold. Kobain wasn't too happy

about it. He sits by the door anticipating

the moment that he can slip back out

to his precious outdoors. Sometimes,

animals, like people, do not know that

you are acting in their best interest.

I will never superannuate.

I didn't put in the time

was never able to do the

nine to five thing, but I have

no regrets; somehow things

keep working out for me

and I bet they will continue

to unless as the late great

Jim Morrison said, "the whole

shit house goes up in flames."

One minute I was twelve

basketball and tennis being

the most important things

in my life and the next I was

fifty seven and love and poetry

were what most consumed me.

How my life has so far passed me

in the blink of an eye I cannot

tell you, but I will tell you that

each day I grow older the more

I see how precious life is

the greatest gift that we have

been given.

Will the knacker come for your body

as angels claim your soul?

Your poetry is soporific.

Your smile that of the devil.

You are an imaginary being

who I create for use in this

poem.

Your poetry is soporific.
Your smile that of the devil.
You are an imaginary being
who I create for use in this
poem.

Let there be sun

The sun only interrupts

my progress for a short while

each morning causing me to

close the blinds to my office.

I call it an office; you would

call it a bedroom, though there is

no bed in it, just two desks

one that has my computer monitor

and keyboard on it along with

miscellaneous paperwork, junk

it would look like to the untrained eye

and the other desk has books on it

and, often, when they are inside, my

cats who like it because it is so close

to the window; they sit in the sill

when the window is open. I hear

Penni barking from outside. She likes

to lay on the floor of this office with

our other two dogs, but I think that

that is because I am in here and not

because the window is open at times.

That turtle don't do nothing

but hide underneath rocks. I

can understand that. I used to

hide under rocks myself, not

literally, but figuratively, if I

had done something wrong

or if I was depressed. I didn't

have to be depressed about

something specific, I was generally

depressed about most all of it,

most of what was going on

around me, though the depression

was really in my head. I didn't

know there was a solution so

I just lived with it, trying to kill it

with booze which just made it

worse. It's like when I first went

on the pink pills, I didn't know that the

they caused you to crave soda

and I would drink a two liter bottle

of cola a day, and I became fat and

diabetic. What a mess, but I have

learned to live with that too, sticking

a pin in my finger every day to draw

a little blood and see how much sugar

is in it. It's amazing what you can live

with. It really is.

I think of chocolate Easter bunnies and jelly beans

on Easter and not the birth of Christ.

Duck. Duck. Duck.

See the duck cluck

swimming on the pond.

Cluck. Cluck. Cluck. Duck.

Stillness

Can you give a cracker with strawberry jam

on top of peanut butter to a dog? Can you

give a complete stranger shit, for no reason?

Can you commit treason by just being yourself?

Are you your own worst enemy?

Is there a friend standing in front of me?

There might be more

but then there might

not be any light by Sunday

where in church you are

supposed to get rid of the

bad and bring in the good.

She was very up front about my chances.

She said, "No chance."

I apologize for all my apologies.

In restraints I will not be bound.

Freedom is the sweetest thing

I've ever found.

Alleviation

Do you pray to a different God than me?

Are the food stains on your couch different than mine?

Everything is mostly alright.

I'm the shoulder you lay your head on at night.

I'm the multiple faces that you have come to know so well.

I am bread. I am butter. I am sushi. I am banana bread.

I'm the poet. The father. The grandfather. Your lover.

So bright is our star that we share in the bedroom.

Angels dancing as we lay our heads upon the pillow

Shaking Hands With The Devil

When folks start singing or talking about The Devil

it's out the door I go. Now, I probably didn't run fast

enough and I think it was Gin, and then when I quit

that, Jack Daniels that got me in trouble. The Devil

put me in drunk tanks praying to The Lord to let me

go, I'll never drink again, Dear God, if you'll just get

me out of here. God gets me out and it's to the bar

I soon go.

Good turned to bad

and bad turned to me

that’s what I got for

working my fingers

to the bone, while some

man took everything

I owned talking on the

telephone. I’m at the

homeless shelter covered

in rain. She ran off with the

singer and left the house

to me.

body parts that have human names

I never met a Reynolds who wasn't

a loser and a prick.

I never met a Bush I wouldn't piss on.

Cronins now there's a twin set of balls

I'd like to kick.

And to think these people bullyed me

when I was a kid.

my love is your love

is our love is our love

big enough for everybody

who we pray for at night?

I am sucking on my last bit of Easter Candy,

a Blow Pop. They are not my favorite; that's

why it is being consumed last. They can't be

good for your teeth, which reminds me I got

to call The Dentist.

Ain't got time for your pot of gold

I can chew enthusiastically on a good tasting piece

of gum. I can smile while you ride the roller coaster,

I'll never step foot on one, and I will never get on

a skateboard, or ski. I don't like bowling. Ain't got

time for gollf. Can't play tennis cuz I got a fake hip.

Can't run long distance, neither; oh well I set the

school record in The Mile and The Two Mile in high school.

They're trying to sell their hats

and things you'd never have thought

they would part with but the economy

put your grandmother's car in some

man's truck who answered your ad

in Craig's List.

I just looked at some Braves season tickets.

I can't afford them.

I like grooving the moon right before the sun rises

having already slept eight hours for the night. I used

to go down bout the time I now get up. Funny, how

life is that way...changes and all from day to day.

She always has a date, but

she doesn't have a man

who will stand by her day

after day.

Bad

My girlfriend tells me that marijuana is

bad for me. Ketchup is bad for you. Ice cream

is bad for you. Fried foods are bad for you.

The government is bad for you. The CIA is bad

for you. The military is bad for you. War is bad

for you.

That would be so beautiful

If I could mime like a mime.

If I could clown like a clown.

If I could tie my shoes, while

sitting down.

If I could walk on a cloud.

If I could not scream out loud

at every wrong that I see in

the world.

If I could look in your eye,

and tell you why I love you,

then that would be so beautiful.

Do you eat from the buffet?

Endless trips back and forth

plate full again, fattening your

figure. You'll work out, tomorrow

you say, but tomorrow becomes

today and that's the way it goes.

Listening to traffic, not caught

in the traffic, mercifully.

I sip on my cup of tea,

and eat my egg with flour tortilla.

Dear Mr. Fantasy I am happy

to see the day, just like I was

happy, last night, to see the moon.

This guy on the radio just referred to

another fellow as, "The worst kind of

racist." What is the best kind of racist?

Is there such a thing?

Give me love

Give me love.

Give me sympathy.

Don't make me get down

on my knees when I have

done you wrong.

Listen to my words.

Heed my song.

I know what's right.

I know what's wrong.

I love you in the moonlight.

I love you in the day.

It's alright.

It's alright.

If they want more of you

and less of me are we going

to let them get their way,

or convince the masses that our way

is the only way to do?

I hope not. I hope that we

would stay true, and I don't

mean act stupid, but originality

sometimes takes awhile to catch on.

So play your bass and talk you song

and when you signal to me, I will

come on down.

Take another sip, brother

you know you don't have to think.

Take another sip, brother

you don't have to sink into

the abyss, but you will, and

there will be no one there to

hold you, just a bunch of folks

to open your wallet and take

everything you got and then

kick you out on the street.

I was so not into being a spectator of any sorts to sports

for such a long time, but over the past few years, I have

started listening to The Braves on the radio and going to

games. I go to The Hawks and have been watching their

playoff games in bars about town...Mexico Lindo...to be

specific. Their food is amazing, and the beverages look

tasty. I'm going to try and book me and Alexander and the

guys there sometime soon. Funny thing: I'm looking forward

to the NFL draft. I'm curious where Manzel will go. There

are wars out there, pollution, sexism and all of that and I

am worried about footbal. What's wrong with me? What a

moron!

The guy on the radio said I could cancel

at any time, so I canceled him right then

by turning off my radio.

Nowhere. Doing nothing.

But I got a smile on my face.

I'm not in the rat race.

The Heisman Trophy winning FSU quarterback

was caught stealing crab legs at The Publix.

11:30 Update: A source inside Florida

State's program says that Winston will be fined $30, required to do community service, and will be suspended from the baseball team.

11:35 Update: The Leon County Sheriff's Office will hold a 2 p.m. press conference concerning Jameis Winston.

A press conference about stolen crab legs! What a hoot! What a way for a talented athlete to make an ass of himself. What was this guy thinking?

Wow, a $30 dollar fine. Can I pay $30 on my faillure to yield ticket when I

go to court on June 5 at 8 a.m. What a sorry boot in the ass this accident was.

I pulled in front of a pastor, put a small, small scratch on his bumper and he called the cops cuz he wants a new bumper. A man of God and all that...

I'd like to delve into

her madness, but I

can't anymore.