Tuesday, October 27, 2009

lonely boy blues





i'm just a lonely boy, lonely and blue
nobody cares what i say or do
nobody cares what i know or think
nobody cares what i eat or drink

nobody cares if my limo is waitin
or i worship jesus allah or satan
nobody cares if my star is fadin
or i carry a picture of omar bin laden

in my wallet with my mom and dog
or how many lonely miles i slog
or the baby jesus in his manger
turns me away - the flaming stranger


Thursday, October 15, 2009

poem # 4






have you ever loved a woman
and she didn't love you back?
have you ever been hit by a freight train
when you were walking down the track?

have you ever watched a bumblebee

hover over a flower?

have you ever wished you could live forever

just for one hour?

have you ever watched a raindrop

disappear down a drain?

have you ever stepped on a spider

and never felt its pain?

have you ever gone to the drugstore

and ordered a sandwich there

and eaten it and eaten it and eaten it

till people started to stare?

have you ever loved a woman

and she called you a pathetic fool?

have you ever sat on the sidewalk

and wished you didn't have to go to school?



Sunday, September 13, 2009

poem for peace





love is the question
indifference is the answer
wisdom is niagara falls
ignorance is the bahamas

st joseph is the customer

salome is the waitress

buddha is the bottle of ketchup

you are the tablecloth

there was this girl in high school

i liked her

she didn't like me

woolly mammoths roamed the corridors

woolly mammoths in the corridors

sabre tooth tigers in the gym

in gray and white spats & propeller beanies

not quite out of the top drawer

it's time for tea

outside it's the future

domed cities and moving sidewalks

i'm ok with it

the duchess of windsor pours oolong tea

buck rogers eats a blueberry scone

crispus attucks & simon legree

play basketball in the wind

poem





caravagio would have loved baywatch

as el greco loved survivor ii

and realized his whole life was a lie

in the long centuries

before orange spandex

and lifeguard chairs

in the blue light

beyond san clemente

and the pikemen disappear
and the terrified monks
and mortality itself

in the white smiles of huntington beach

never such arms in florence

or legs outside st peters



Monday, May 4, 2009

double a, part 1











when i was young i was full of fire
wild women were my desire
to buy them flowers and perfume
night after night i played with doom

but i was not always so wild
before that i was god's child
and i stood in the shadow of the steeple
in the fleeting shadow of the steeple

reverend mason, the mildest of men
told me when i was only ten
that god had marked me for his own
and my soul would never turn to stone

the light that falls through schoolhouse walls
is the light through which eternity crawls
i had no thought of other fate
what could i but sit and wait?

my mother was a woman good
and always did the best she could
her eyeballs had a hunted look
through the smoke of all the meals she cooked

my father wore a hat of gray
and never had very much to say
his posture was a little slack
he went to work and always came back

but madness bubbled in my brain
and violence whistled through my veins
through walls and windows closed so tight
i heard the call of laughing night

the night - a dark and throbbing ocean
but floating in perpetual motion
upon is surface - old town square
the playground of the brave and fair

where swaggering dudes and slinky dames
with reputations and magic names
a hundred stories in each face
defied the law-abiding human race

the night on which my life began
and i decided to be a man
out the window and down the tree
nothing on earth was stopping me

there on the corner, the very first
was harry jensen, the worst of the worst
and johnny black, the coolest of the cool
i walked right into them like a fool

i halted my progress none too soon
beneath the full and smiling moon
johnny turned, as smooth as ice
his voice was soft as clicking dice

"kid, you're out a little late"
into his eyes i looked quite straight
"i'm on my way to do a job"
harry horselaughed - the stupid slob

the laugh seared through me like a knife
he was my enemy for life
we might pull jobs together, yet
deep down i never would forget

but johnny's gaze was cool and gray
i stood and did not look away
"that's very interesting", he said
"we were going home to bed"

"and i still am" said harry rudely
but johnny turned on him quite moodily
"you never know what we might find
tell us, kid, what's on your mind"

these guys didn't look so tough
in innocence i tried a bluff
"why should i let you in on this?
this job's a snap - it just can't miss."

"have it your way", johnny said
as harry yawned and scratched his head
"and yet i find it kind of hard
you couldn't use a man on guard"

"why don't you let us come along?
if it's as easy as a song
no need to split the take with us
i'm just a little curious."

harry laughed again - the jerk
one day i'd make of him short work
"go on." he said, it's not my game
i've got a date with a swell dame,"

"dame. dame," - at just the word
my heart hammered and my eyeballs blurred
then swift as lightning in the rain
a plan jumped full into my brain


Friday, February 6, 2009

Thursday, February 5, 2009