WHAT'S UP?
I'm lost, and I don't have a clue
As to where I'm at with you.
Maybe you won't let me know
Because you'd never hurt me so.
If that's the case, you're just too sweet.
Still let me know and I'll retreat.
INTELLIGENCE
It's become a real scorcher--
Truth browning in the frying pan.
The heroes never figured torture
Was part of any master-plan.
But there it is, and they will do it--
And God forbid they suffer through it.
CHAPTER 7, 7-11
Ask and you'll receive--
Somewhere that's been promised you.
But nothing you believe
When the rat race runs you through
A maze that takes more than you've got--
A debtor to the dreams you bought.
FRIENDLY FIRE
Can the rhetoric, I've been told--
Your propaganda's getting old.
Explaining what is going on
From a book's a mighty yawn.
Write, she said, about a time
When you were down--still in your prime.
SAP FOR SWEET PARTS
Put up with shit
To get to sweet
Parts of your relationship.
You'll take a hit
And if they cheat
You'll excuse it as a slip.
Sweet parts, though they happen fast,
Come so good the memories last.
HEAVY METAL PAYBACK
A skinhead homophobic suck,
Racist, mother fucking dick
And sexist pig ran out of luck.
The joy I felt was simply sick.
BARKING DOGS/BARKING SPIDERS
Neither one, unless they're yours,
Are something you can stand.
The nose or noise from down all fours
Is not in your command.
Not exactly hidden dragons,
Crouching tigers. Circled wagons
Or better yet benign escapes
The likely way you'll squeeze those grapes.
BABY, COME BACK
I watched you slip into that zone
Where you know longer saw me.
Lost my place as even drone
To a classy sweet queen bee.
My lazy doings pushed you where
You're too far gone to even care.
LUNCHBOX
I open lunch and there's a note
From you to me, a loving touch;
I'm touched not from the words you wrote
But little things like this and such--
Reminding me you're always there
Letting me know that you care.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
Get rid of money, it's that simple,
Time we finally popped the pimple
Blemishing the face of reason--
The act, though, will be seen as treason
To a system working well
For those who put the rest through hell.
MY FAVORITE SKIRT
Long white skirt on longer legs--
The cloth a fine, loose summer weave.
In bright sunlight the fabric begs
A look beneath--my eyes perceive
Your gorgeous ass and underwear
As you walk away, I swear.
FRIDA KAHLO
The shit she took from men she turned
Into the canvas art she sold
Back to them--reclaimed unearned
Privileges and ill-got gold--
Doctors high up on her list
Of every lame misogynist.
Diego, though, loved women so,
She forgave and let it go.
WHAT IT TAKES
I could go on rest of my life
With you, and I'd be satisfied.
Since me, your husband, you my wife,
Forgive the times we've strayed and lied.
And lies are told to keep the peace
When questioned by the spousal police.
Confessions come later, about the lies,
When there're forgiveness in our eyes.
RUSH
I know that I take chances,
I know I cross the line
Stealing more from you than glances--
You respectfully decline.
You don't like chances getting caught
Doing something we should not.
FREAKED
Failed father, failing friend,
Focused on the fear instead
That the world is going to end
Before it gets through to ones head
It's more than family, faith or flag--
It's a suffocating bag.
TERRORISTS
It's the fault of trouble makers,
Going to extremes,
Every one of them, lawbreakers
Killing off our dreams
Of a world that goes our way,
When we worship and obey.
PAY ATTENTION
SONNET FOR BJ
Look out for the contradictions,
As would a jealous, angry wife
Or husband looking for the fictions
Avoiding or creating strife.
That's the way to look at what
Is given to us as the facts--
Or life will more than kick our butt.
Love your country, fear the hacks
Who tell us what is going on,
Who try convince us to believe
That what we have will all be gone
If we don't give more to relieve
Deficits in cash and power.
Pay attention or liars flower.
RED
My lap is allowed,
Her presence is sweet--
She lands like a cloud,
So light on her feet.
A small ball of fur, to warm up the lap
Of an old man. For her I'm a sap.
LOVE & WHIPPED
One day last week my Philistine
Conduct made her stuff
It down my throat. Next day my queen
Liked the action rough.
That's love, always changing when
The sun is coming up again.
Yesterday, I guess she thought
My story slightly stiff
As to where I was--she caught
Me in a likely "if".
Suspicions of a seasoned mind--
Words last night were not so kind.
Today she's fine, the feelings passed
From when she had the cow;
From the dark, she rises fast--
It's sunny smiles now.
Remember, now's another day--
Now she takes my breath away.
RIDDLE
When men appear a little thick
When they're dealing with a chick,
And come on subtle as a brick
Thinking that they're going to click
With chances charm will do the trick,
Thinking that they're pretty slick--
Especially when they've had a drink,
What organ do they use to think?
FANTASY
Fantasies can carry weight,
Keep you rooted to the ground,
And maybe keep your future straight.
That, or fantasies confound
Reality with dead-end streets
And empty love between the sheets.
SAUL BEFORE PETER
Though your conscience understood
That what you did was right,
You have fears exposure would
Deliver you an endless night
Of consequences too severe.
It's fear and God that we revere.
SURVIVORS
Tortured souls who live together
Try survive the stormy weather
Tortured lives have to endure
To hold to what to them's secure.
What choices are they given when
They can't escape the lion's den?
THE PHARISEES DEMONIZED JESUS
Castro, Stalin, Mao:
What if the Southern states had won?
Lincoln, now a sacred cow,
Would have had his deeds undone.
Class war's bad as any war,
Terror, cruelty and more...
But class war lets loose grudges held--
Rocket payback, jet propelled.
GOOD POETS COPY, GREAT POETS STEAL?
Ah, faux poets tripping, to
Capture what the people feel.
Never, themselves, yet gone through
The feelings, so instead they steal
Stories telling what it's like--
Performing from the open mike.
GERIATRIC WET DREAM
Out of my league and out of my mind
To step into that dream;
I might as well been walking blind--
Certainly didn't have the steam
To take it where it had to go
For getting off, or toe to toe.
Your age and looks have got me beat--
But I remember once how sweet.
SHE
A very special friend who shares
Her secrets with someone who cares,
Having secrets himself he
Reveals moments he can be
Somewhere quiet, soft and safe
Away from where the feelings chafe.
MARS VS VENUS
Women in affairs are smart,
Men think with their dick.
For women it's a careful art.
Men are simply slick--
Their dick is thinking, what the fuck,
Can't have it now? That's got to suck.
POETRY
Poetry is politics--
Exposing all the quirks and tics
Of a way of life gone wrong;
Poetry can be a song
To life you love with all your heart;
Poetry's a plastic art
That changes with a few keystrokes
And celebrates. If not, provokes.
ISSUE POLITICS
Chicken-shit libs, what can they do?
They've got no labor to withhold.
But they can write and talk and chew
On the issues centuries old.
What's that get us? Leaders who
Get elected to buy into
A system that no longer works
Except for those who get the perks.
WHITE PHOSPHORUS
What's worse except the dread they felt
Before it finally came?
Fast, like from a cartridge belt--
Hit or miss, still deadly aim.
Flaming loads to burn and melt
From a distance--so, no shame
Felt, as we nurture terror dealt
Out to those without a name.
ILLICIT
Love lost to possibilities of
Exposure--of what's innocent;
What's more innocent than love,
No matter how the love is spent?
It's pure as long as it is felt
By both who're letting their hearts melt.
SUDOKU
A poem might be nothing more
Than fitting in the number;
Unless it's holding more in store--
Like a meaning to encumber
Thought with possibilities
There's more to it than one first sees.
FRANK
A union rep in his hey-day,
Born way back, up in L.A--
First 12 years down in T.J.,
By seven he'd no longer play--
Hustled street corners, shining shoes
For money that his grandma'd use
For beans and rice and kerosene when
The mailmen ripped them off again--
Stealing the money his parents sent
From up north, that's how it went.
MARK CHAPMAN MEETS JOHN LENNON
Where did Chapman get the cash
To travel like he did--
Ending with the muzzle flash
That made his lonely bid
To be someone. Where did he get
The cash to get to where they met?
From Hawaii, making trips
To New York City, staying in
A nice hotel, 'til he'd eclipse
The life of someone who had been
His idol in his younger days--
Muzzle and his dreams ablaze.
Now he lives a life away
From everybody, treated well.
Model inmate, they all say--
Three squares and a separate cell;
He's a star with perks besides
The letters from his phantom brides--
Fueling fantasies he's among
The greats to end songs to be sung.
WE'VE GOT IT ASS-BACKWARDS
First you suffer, then there's help?
Sounds fucked up and lame to me.
Why suffer or even have to yelp
From a man-made tragedy?
The planet's a pearl, blue marble of wealth--
Only one species that threatens its health.
GORDIAN KNOT
When all the issues have revolved
Around a private joke,
All the issues can be solved
With a single stroke.
The joke is that there's nothing better--
All the issues one dead-letter.
The stoke is from a sword that cuts
Through all the bullshit, ands and buts.
THE ARTIST, NEROS, FLAMES
The genius cover-art of one
Who saw beneath the fold,
Took risks beyond the normal run
You take when you've been sold
The path to where you want to go--
His cover-art showed what's below.
WHOAMI
UNIX command used at the prompt
To remind you what account
You're using now before you've stomped
On file systems you'll never mount
Because the ar-em minus ar
Came from root and went too far.
WOULD YOU LIKE CHEESE WITH THAT WHINE?
They miss "back when",
And swear back then
Everyone was safe and happy--
A country song
That has it wrong,
And worse, because it's sappy.
Cry of the middle class that's been
Squeezed out--working class again.
Both your parents went to work--
Factory, farm, an office clerk.
Making enough,
Occasionally rough
When families had to borrow money.
Call it a sin,
They'll never win,
And this, the land of milk and honey.
MY AB-AB-CC EX'S
Never thought that it was work--
Neither they, nor I
Since I got high--
However, drove them berserk
To think that I was spending time
Alone, just working up a rhyme
While there was something needing done--
Grounds for split, the major one.
Now I'm old and do my share--
I'm not going anywhere.
SONNET FOR MY BABY--PEEVES
There're things you do that drive me nuts,
Like leaving hair that clogs the drain;
Ashtrays full of cigarette butts,
Piling clothes on chairs? Insane.
Toenails cut on the coffee table?
Clippings ricochet off my leg.
Thank your lucky stars I'm stable,
Not a red hot powder keg;
The honking coming from the shower,
Blowing your nose, it's hard to take;
Brushing your teeth you always scour
Your tongue and gagging that you make
Sounds like someone's choking you--
Like sometimes I would like to do.
OH, BABY
Just one sign you really care
Apart from what I do for you
Is going to get you everywhere--
I think that's all you have to do
To get me back, you know I love
You more than all the stars above.
WRITER'S BLOCK
Because I'm so undisciplined
About recalling what I see,
I toss myself into the wind
To catch a thought escaped from me--
I smoke a bowl, I take a pill,
Mix a drink and take what I will.
ADRENILINE
He took chances, some were slim--
That didn't seem to bother him,
Even when he came up short
With no chance he could abort.
But what a thrill the times he jumped--
Times it worked out he was pumped.
PWD
Besides knowing who you are,
You need reminding where.
Especially using ar em star--
With option, minus ar your hair
Will stand on end when the time it takes
Is longer than normally should;
Know what that you can put on brakes
Control C hopefully would
Stop the damage of losing some files--
Print working directory to keep the smiles.
EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE
Quit begging and learn how to take
What's yours back from the man--
The man forever on the make
And taking everything he can
From someone who's been led to beg
For jobs that build the man's nest egg.
BANANA PEEL
To fall in love you sometimes slip
On a ripe banana peel--
Comical, god-awful trip
Unless you're lucky, then you feel
You've landed three feet off the ground--
Cushioned by the love you've found.
HER METAMORPHISIS
Would I be leaving him for you
If the truth came out?
If everything you say is true,
I would without a doubt.
I'm tired living with a prick,
Always thinking from his dick.
SINS VISIT THE THIRD GENERATION
Sins of one become the sins
Of another generation.
Was it 3 down, then begins
A healing realization
You can't treat another like
A punching bag that you can strike
Any angry moment when
You're blaming someone else again?
ABUSED
One walking, talking ball of rage--
Rolling anger out.
She'll accept nobody's cage,
And screams before she'll shout:
"Get me out of here I won't
Be nobody's fool. Fuck you, don't!"
LETTING GO
A scary feeling--letting go.
Looking like you're going to drop
To a rocky end and so
You just want it all to stop--
You'll hang on for all you're worth
Rather than get down to earth.
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
With forbidden fruit don't flirt--
There'll be someone to condemn
You if you're caught. Then someone's hurt--
Maybe you but surely them.
Is it worth it anyway?
How will you get to know them, eh?
FREE LOVE
Free love isn't free you see--
It costs a pretty penny.
There's a toll for being free--
It's going to cost you plenty
When love is free for someone not,
Hearts get broken--hearts turn cold;
Anger goes beyond all thought
When you're caught, can't be controlled.
And when free love is casual sex,
Can't really call it love at all;
Love is infinitely complex--
And little freedom when you fall
In love, no choice but let go of
Everything you have for love.
DOG
If they cheat for you, they'll cheat
On you, like they've done before.
Feeling any sexual heat
Once again they'll try to score.
Get married and you'll never know
How the future's going to go.
Thought this time you'd be the one,
And maybe so. They may be done.
GOOD FRIEND
O.K., I just want you to
Let me help to get you through.
Life's a bitch that works on you
And threatens you until you do
What you're told and fight no more
And settle to be someone's whore.
Old friend, that's what I'm here for,
To back you when you've strength to roar.
THIS, IN A PLACE RELATIVELY GOOD
Get drunk,
Get high,
Anything to not be bored;
Shoot junk,
Might die--
That disturbing thought ignored.
If this is hell you know it's said,
Heaven's anywhere you're dead.
ONE AND THE OTHER
One heart filled with love's desire,
The other pure as gold;
The one heart burning like on fire--
The other might be cold.
One doesn't know because the other
Won't hurt the one who's like a brother.
JINGLE
Anyone who's written rhyme
That's any good, is dead.
That judgment's made time after time--
Friends say write blank verse, instead.
As long as I am understood,
And writing rhythms that are fun,
I'll settle being one no-good
Hack--no pleasing everyone.
An easy read when rhythms rhyme,
They all don't have to be sublime.
Not that every rhyme is play,
Not when pointing to a day
Like Poe's The Raven, pointed to
Abolition--overdue.
Civil wars and genocide,
Hardly beg us for a rhyme--
What's a rhyme to those who've died,
Unless with funeral bells that chime
For the dead who gave up lives
When everybody else survives?
LIBIDO STOMP
Sometimes when attraction
Remains below the waist,
Venal satisfaction
Lays the heart to waste
With a force not in control
That reaches steady for your soul.
THE EMPEROR'S GOT NO CLOTHES
The dream is gone forever more--
What's left to expose?
Everyone's somebody's whore,
Or sporting one brown nose.
Your work for cash fixed to include
A dozen ways for getting screwed.
WRITER'S BLOCK
I'd run out of things to say
Or different ways to say it.
We met. and ten years to the day
I didn't write--here's how I weigh it:
She filled me up and now I write,
Whenever she is gone from sight.
THE GOOD ONE, THE BAD ONE,
AND THEN THERE'S SAMMY
Sammy's so dumb--a hundred times
He's told before he gets it.
Red's a bitch, won't cop to crimes,
Does what she wants a lets it
Be known she's the princess who's
Walking in high heel shoes.
And so smart, but like a cat,
Cares less if you care for her.
But she turns on sweet charms that
Makes you be all there for her.
Sammy, on the underhand,
Adores you, bug eyes, big tear gland.
BFD--BEN FRANKLIN DEAL
One forefather told us time
Is money. So let's burn it.
Take hours worked and be sublime,
Assume that we all earn it--
Trade time worked for time it takes
For help or what a worker makes.
A voucher says you worked 10 hours?
How many bouquets is that of flowers?
JW
Toughest broad you've ever known--
And that's the term she used--
Cares for herself and lives alone,
But heavily abused
By life and men or alcohol
For cushion when she hits the wall.
BIG MISTAKE
Fantasies fueled the choices made,
And boy, were they dead wrong.
Chances are you never prayed
Or thought about them very long.
Consequences one big wow,
And here you are--stuck with them now.
FANTASY
If I were free to hold your hand
Or kiss you on the lips
Any time I wanted and
Let my hand fall to your hips,
I'd be living paradise--
Don't know if I could pay the price.
SOFT TOUCH
A friend, or someone, asks a favor
Of you and you say yes--
Samaritan, or simply waver
To avoid the stress
Of saying no to someone who
Might maybe bark back big at you.
LIFE'S A BITCH
I got the perfect life:
Two little dogs, a wife,
A house, a job--my wife is great
Except the times she gets irate
When I forget to close the door
On the life I led before.
ANELGESICS, DRINK AND SATIVA
ABUSE AND DENIAL/TRADE SECRET
One muse comes to focus,
Another lets me go;
One's for hocus-pocus
To let the magic flow.
It's all good, they're on the level--
Through a pact made with the devil.
WASTED CALL
Evidently you had tasted
Too much of the good stuff 'cuz
I called you up and you were wasted,
Didn't know what day it was.
The sense you made to me last night?
Quarts low by the idiot light.
WAITING TABLES
The working class, what has it got?
And everything you have's from them.
You're probably working class yet bought
The story that your troubles stem
From unions slowing business down;
You're pissed that laid off workers cost
The rest of us. Some of us brown
Nose the owners who have bossed
Us from teenagers to the grave.
But I always know somebody
Who has figured ways to save
Integrity--some good, some naughty.
One working special interest group?
Piss them off? Piss in your soup.
MESSY REALITY
A wish, a dream, a thing that's not
Real in my work-a-day life,
Has come to occupy my thought--
Razor sharp, pokes like a knife,
Lancing boils beneath my skin
(Which suffers being paper thin)
Oozing pressure I've suppressed--
Weeping as I'm getting dressed.
THE BICKERSONS
You've put up with me so long
I guess I'm doing something right.
Other hand, I could be wrong--
We know how to pick a fight.
And though we both get over it,
You've been known to throw a fit.
TOUCH AND GO LANDING
Solo liquid flight escapes
Are coming off too short a fix--
Solitude and sour grapes,
Are blending in a bitter mix
You slammed a second time to get
Free of what you're feeling yet.
COLD HEART
A searching look was last I saw
From you leaving me last night--
Trying to stoke a fire to thaw
The ice that gives my heart frost bite.
You don't think I feel your need
For once to see a warm heart bleed.
I do, I do, still love you so,
I just can't make the heater go.
INMATE BLUES
If I can't kiss that woman soon,
I'd just as soon be dead.
Rather than howl at the moon--
Choose nothingness instead.
GUILT TRIP
Drive a hundred miles to see
Your dad who's been an awful shit;
Grandpa next, who's got to be
Smoothing out the bumps you hit
On the driveway to his home--
Guilt has needless miles to roam.
TEEN IDOL
She thought about him every day,
And nights were even worse;
The longings wouldn't go away--
So strong they were perverse.
Sweet dreams of what could be with him
Were torture, chances were so slim.
EGO
An empty life? You'll fill it with
Someone you'll possess?
Boredom, yes? You'll kill it with
What is anybody's guess?
What a fucked up life we live,
When we don't know how to give.
THROW ME A BONE
I'm lost, and I don't have a clue
As to where I'm at with you.
Maybe you won't let me know
Because you'd never hurt me so.
If that's the case, you're just too sweet.
Still let me know and I'll retreat.
WHAT? ME WORRY?
Don't worry 'bout me, a happy clam,
I live beneath the sea.
What you do to who I am
Will never bother me--
I live below the tides of change,
Some of which are monstrous, strange.
STALIN VS CAPITALISM
All I know is what I've seen
In papers and TV.
That and everything between
Is nothing that I see
First hand. So I can never tell
What to believe from what they sell.
AH
I'm finished, done. I finally feel
I've nothing left to give.
Actually feel I've done the deal
That let's somebody live.
I can die in peace and let
My work pay off my karmic debt.
TOUGH LOVE
Situations I imagine
Never happen, why?
Maybe since I can't begin
To ever think that I
Could ever get the one I want
And settle for the dreams that haunt.
THEY SAY IT'S GREED
It's human nature to survive.
And how will we survive
Going like we're going? I've
No doubt life's about to dive
Into oblivion--that's unless
We upset the greed's finesse.
SEX
Sex is more than breath of life,
It's the drug of choice.
Domestic bliss or savage strife,
Can't silence sex's voice.
Love or rape, the sex is there
With/without the loving care.
LUCY
Judy was a crazy saint
Doing what she could
To get the kids to see what ain't
Helping out the common good.
If what you did caused someone pain,
Lucy wants you to esplain.
WHY?
I love women who get mad--
Raging mad, because they can;
Love such women, but it's sad
To think that I am just a man
Enduring what a woman does
From a man enraged, because?
JUSTICE, WAR TIME VS PEACE TIME
They don't want the reason why
They raped or maimed or killed;
They just want to see them die
And see justice fulfilled.
But if it's war, they'll pardon them,
Or look away and not condemn.
BORN WITHOUT A CLUE
From her hips back to her tits
Her baby found his way--
Nursed along, of course, by bits
Of comfort she would lay
On him, a squalling whelp
She knew could use a little help.
YOU
Like to look good, don't you now?
I like you looking good as well.
But looking good no way, no how
Pull you from the living hell
Of working in a world that goes
By starving makers of your clothes.
FLING
With a fling where will you land?
No one ever knows.
A wedding ring on your left hand
Surely only shows
You're going nowhere, maybe back
FRANKIE
I saw Frankie just tonight,
He told me what the doctors said--
He's dying. Frankie says, all right,
His life is worse than being dead.
Almost, now he's thinking he
Is finally going to be set free.
Frankie's 47 now,
I met him when he was 14--
On the JV team--no how
Would he play, though lean and mean--
He was brown-skin in a town
Where no one got too far when brown.
That's when Frankie figured out
He'd win battles, but no war--
Neither him, nor those devout
Crusaders like his dad or more
Would ever win against what stands
Against a righteous change of hands.
He figured that your choices are
Between the two extremes--
Suicide or fancy car--
Success or artificial dreams
(Produced by alcohol or drugs--
And fuck the artificial hugs).
Chose suicide--a long slow death--
Liquor's how he'd do it.
He'd shot coke and smack and meth,
But couldn't get into it.
If he was going to die he'd die
Slow on a legal, dreamy high.
He's a well-read history buff.
His dad, a union rep,
Brought up his son to being tough,
"Take a chance and take a step
Over the line, you might lose bad,
But draw some blood," so said his dad.
"If he throws one, and you know
You can't beat him, duck and run.
If you can't run, fight back and go
Until he shows blood, and son--
Run if you ever see a knife,
Don't take those chances with your life.
"Run if you see a stick or bat--
What fight's worth a broken bone?
But if a gun you're looking at,
Give him everything you own.
Unless he wants your life then hit
With all you got, and never quit."
Frankie figured early on
No one poor has got a chance.
He thought we're all somebody's pawn--
Somebody up there makes us dance
Through the orders they send down.
If you can't dance they'll let you drown
Out the orders with a toast--
A one-liter toast to those who rule.
And Frankie, just like that--a ghost--
Never again be someone's fool.
Except one night--a homeless camp
A woman being called a tramp
Was being beaten up too bad--
He stepped in and saved her ass.
But what he did, weeks later had
Consequences sharp as glass--
The guy he pulled off slit his throat
At a bus stop--all she wrote.
Frankie lived, except for this:
Blade cut a nerve--he hiccups now
24/7 without a miss
15 seconds apart, so how
Does he sleep? One-liter toast--
He hasn't given up the ghost.
If Frankie isn't fully smashed:
A wealth of knowledge, but on edge--
With friends and kin he's often clashed.
If neither friend nor kin the ledge
He'll push you off's hypocrisy,
Ignorance and your "me, me, me".
But tonight, he told me that
He needs an operation. Might
Kill him, but he's fine, he's at
The point of dropping one fixed fight--
And the hiccups they can't fix:
Doesn't care. He'll miss the Knicks.
SHE SAID
You don't talk with me, you test
Me, where I'm going, where I've been.
That, or your eyes on my chest--
Wanting something once again.
You're not the only one, you see--
Sex should also be for me.
KAT AND SPORTS
Kat is not afraid of men--
Not afraid to tell them that
She's tired of the lion's den.
But if there's going to be a spat
She'll use her mouth. Would not believe
The disrespect you could receive.
You're watching one important game.
She's talking (your eyes on the screen),
Can't ignore her--feeling lame,
The game's so good you want to scream.
Kat goes silent, fuck the fuss.
She's not on the sports fan bus--
Stuff to entertain the slaves--
Football, baseball, anything
To see something where someone saves
The day and earns some righteous bling.
Dreams that some men have to share--
Sorry, Katheryn doesn't care.
PASSIVE
Go ahead, he said, I'm tired,
Looking down a gun.
Pull the trigger. Pistol fired--
Another life is done.
HER
Describing her's describing what
Just maybe what is killing me.
She's picture perfect, nothing but.
But yet she's not fulfilling me
Except to fan my fantasies--
Ah, softly scented summer breeze.
PRIVATE HYPOCRITE--MAJOR RAGE
Anger out of self-deceit--
Don't want them doing what you've done.
Suspicious, knowing how to cheat,
How to lie and get things done
You'd never do up front in front
Of others. Now you take a blunt
Instrument, your threats, to beat
Confessions from who's at your feet.
CONTROL FREAK
You can't lose the perfect slave--
Tears and rage you'll use to keep her.
You just want her to behave,
You don't want to see a sleeper
Catch you unawares--to fool
You, when she breaks another rule.
HER METAMORPHOSIS
Would I be leaving him for you
If the truth came out?
If everything you say is true,
I would without a doubt.
I'm tired living with a prick,
Always thinking from his dick.
SINS VISIT THE THIRD GENERATION
Sins of one become the sins
Of another generation.
Was it 3 down, then begins
A healing realization
You can't treat another like
A punching bag that you can strike
Any angry moment when
You're blaming someone else again?
ABUSED
One walking, talking ball of rage--
Rolling anger out.
She'll accept nobody's cage,
And screams before she'll shout:
"Get me out of here I won't
Be nobody's fool. Fuck you, don't!"
LETTING GO
A scary feeling--letting go.
Looks like you're going to drop
To to a rocky end, and so
You just want it all to stop--
You'll hang on for all you're worth
Instead of coming down to earth.
KATRINA
No food nor water, power's out,
Hospitals lack supplies;
No help, no law, and little doubt
That anarchy's on the rise.
Demolished buildings, refugees--
Homes are gone, they can't go back;
People brought down to their knees--
How different is it from Iraq?
Or in a country anywhere
Big business takes a bigger share?
But this time nature was the cause--
From corporations: polite applause.
They'll make money as before--
Except this time it's not from war.
It's one disaster saving those
Who live long as their business grows.
WAS IT GOD?
Some survive a hellish time
That maybe turns their lives around.
From that, might turn to fighting crime--
Or to get folks heaven-bound.
Was it God, the State, or you
With chances, that had pulled you through?
Safest is to say all three--
Though two of them won't let you be.
MINUTE MEN
They think they're needed at the border,
Minute Men, they call themselves.
They say they're helping law and order--
But not exactly Santa's elves.
Walkie-talkie, maybe gun,
Camouflage and olive-drab
Clothes outfit the native son
Who's at the border, there to grab
Attention for the border wars
And have a little fun of course.
They're not closing any doors,
They're nothing like a major force--
Just drama at the last frontier
Until the borders disappear?
MINUTE MEN II
At the border, a Minute Man--
(That's what SHE said, goes the joke)
Brother to the Ku Klux Klan,
Looking for someone to choke
Off, crossing at the border--
Vigilante law and order.
At the border, a Minute Man,
Wants to catch those smuggling coke--
He'll do anything he can.
(That's not what SHE says, goes the joke.)
These border dogs who're packing heat,
Run back to lie at someone's feet.
At the border, a Minute Man,
There to dash a migrant's hope.
He sits on hills where he can scan
The trails with his rifle scope.
But Minute Men blow barrel smoke--
And that's what SHE said, goes the joke.
VOGUE
I don't know, hon, why you feel
So bad about your looks sometimes.
Sorry, don't know how to deal
With feelings rated major crimes--
Like what this culture did to you
To make you feel the way you do.
LEARNING TO TALK
I was thinking long before
I ever said a thing.
Either I felt like a bore
Or total ding-a-ling--
Regretting everything I said,
Sharing what was in my head.
TWO REVOLUTIONARY MISTAKES
One mistake is thinking they
Are stronger than they are--
Making you afraid to say
A thing, or go too far.
The other is to think that you
Can go ahead without a clue
About how strong the state may be--
Stronger than they let you see.
MATE
At any age you're in your prime
When you refuse to fake it--
You want someone to make you time,
Not someone who'll take it;
You want someone who's just like you--
Give it up to make it through.
ON A STACK OF HOLY BOOKS
You have my word, if I cause doubts
About your faith in god,
I'll supply the whereabouts
Of your own god squad--
To rescue you from me, the "devil"
Trying to keep it on the level.
BRAGGING AT YOU
It's superficiality--
Bogus talk of what could be;
Nowhere near reality,
Hardly something you would see
Down on the streets or in your bed--
The talk's just fucking with your head.
RELIGION--OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE
When Marx said religion was
The opiate of the people,
He wasn't knocking faith because
The minaret and steeple,
Were all folks, back then, could afford.
Weren't too many rich enough
To buy the drugs, instead the lord
Would get them through when times were tough.
Now drugs are cheap, sold on the street,
And from the pharmacies;
Religion, though, is still as sweet
And carries guarantees
That it won't kill you, like drugs, if
It doesn't lead you off a cliff.
SALEM WITCH AND PATRIOT ACT
I don't trust my friends, sometimes.
How bad is that? Don't even ask.
I watch as paranoia climbs
To peaks the times I have to mask
My feelings when the talk's about
The government and certain laws.
I can't confess I'm as devout
As patriots about the cause--
Some who want to bomb and strafe
Figuratively--or in fact--
Do anything to feel safe,
Especially when the odds are stacked.
Who's going to be the latest witch?
It doesn't matter to the snitch.
ESCAPE
Maybe it's all right to think
It all could end inside a wink--
A fantasy that you could meet
The perfect love on Lonely Street;
The wink in time that lets you leave
Without someone who's left to grieve;
A fantasy that you could end
Your old life up around the bend.
MY MUSE
I love to write, but I don't write
Unless something has got me stoned--
Uncommon pain or loves that bite
Back from another love I boned.
And then there's drugs and alcohol:
Tap one and the muses call
On you and writing's just a ball.
21st CENTURY MARX
If Karl Marx came back today,
I'd teach him how to type;
Get him on the Net and pay
The fees and fill his pipe;
Bring him Starbucks, show him how
To search the Web, but tell him now
The ledger's closed, you can't get in
To see how business owners win.
4 FORMS OF ALIENATION
1)
From your job, most common sort--
The work you do you chose to do
To make the money to support
Yourself and maybe family, too.
The exploitation soon gets old--
Surviving doing what you're told.
2)
From other workers, different trades,
Some beneath and some above--
Separation by pay grades.
Rarely, is there any love
Lost between the warring factions--
Labor/Management reactions.
3)
From other cultures, classes, nations--
Heroic acts and heinous crimes.
Beginning with the confrontations,
This alienation usually climbs
To mayhem, murder, 'til it's war--
And genocide some will ignore.
4)
From yourself, and this is bad
Because you're helpless now--
Makes you angry, makes you sad,
Doesn't really matter how
You handle it, you can't do much
Except to find a decent crutch.
Alienated, inside-out--
A ruling class brings it about.
Domination, exploitation--
Causing us our alienation;
Democracy, cooperation,
Would end it all with education.
THE REFORMERS
AND CHORUS
How many ways do we have to say it,
Before you understand?
None. We know...know how to play it--
You're playing in our band.
There's simply isn't any way it
Isn't playing to our hand.
RECURSIVE OPS
How long's the corporate world been sacking
The 3rd world for resources?
And now, protecting--by attacking--
From the air, supporting forces
Moving on the ground to mount
Attacks on who's already fled.
Those left, live until they count
Themselves among the lucky dead.
And here we let the fools talk
About the evil axis when
CNN's the widow's walk
We watch from, one more time, again.
LETTUCE PRAY
If there's a God, and likewise devil,
Then what's on earth is hell;
Where nothing down here's on the level,
And so little turns out well
Compared to what we know could be.
Let's pray not for eternity.
NONSENSE
Five oh four, oh, three, five, oh!
Can I get you on the line?
Should I call or let it go--
Stop this wishing you were mine?
SELF PITY
Fucking drunk and feeling sorry
For yourself and life today.
Yesterday, you called me, starry-
Eyed about things going your way.
Drunk then, too, but what the heck,
Your view's not from the upper deck--
But thinking only of yourself
Extends your life stuck on a shelf.
SONNET TO ANARCHY
She broke him free and I just cheered--
Bonnie, Clyde. So what--he robbed;
Nothing like white collar cleared,
Or when artillery rounds are lobbed
Into a village, precision hit,
Insurgents' safe house, but inside
Were women, children, they admit.
"Collateral damage". People died.
She broke him free, I guess I'm twisted
To cheer them on--I've even started
Supporting those the papers listed
As terrorists, and grown cold-hearted--
I hate the corporate power so much
I love the payback's common touch.
ORGANIZER
Be like him and never break--
Don't give up any names.
Be like him--do not mistake
The word of one who claims
To be there for you when it comes
Down--for certain, they'll be gone.
Be like him--embrace the slums
And all that poverty can spawn.
But unlike him, don't let them hang
You from a cross--just disappear
And come back later with a bang--
Actually, as tip of the spear
That's gets us through, down to the heart,
Of what is keeping us apart.
CAPITALISM
When profit is the driving force
Behind the enterprise,
Anything goes, of course, of course--
Cheating, stealing, bold faced lies;
Environment's an afterthought--
Planning's saved for battles fought.
THEY STARTED IT
What! Are we back in seventh grade?
It's not that simple, do the math--
Count the casualties they trade
For incurring vengeful wrath
From trade centers owning all
The worldly wealth. But towers fall,
Since Babylon--to New York City--
The losing side long gave up pity.
OUR SELECTED LEADERS
Attached, but lacking feeling,
A parasite for sure;
Insects hanging from the ceiling
Telling us they've got the cure
To woes below,
And those below
Usually listen to the buzz
They generate--
Maintain the state
For everything their business does.
Look up to them, they see a slave--
Got our attention, we behave.
FIGHTER DYING
It was just slow suicide--
His liver on its way to paste.
He'd brush his friend's appeals aside--
He had little time to waste
To get his cause across again
Until more people saw it's real.
Feeling like that little hen
Making bread--tries to appeal
For help, but this, no fairy tale--
He's going to make a sacrifice--
Takes what it takes to get across.
A drink would always serve him nice--
Liquid courage stiffened sauce
He served his friends atop the course
Of talk that's siding up with force.
CINDY, CRAWFORD
Has there ever been a war
That made it better for us all?
What's sacrifice exactly for?
Freedom for a bigger mall?
Or make a country just like us--
Civil power in control?
From Joan Baez to Ludicrous,
Corporations have our soul
Pinned to sleeves or deep in pockets--
Or at least beneath the fold.
From oil down to your wall sockets,
They've got the power with the gold.
Call war freedom, but who can't see
It's just another buying spree?
TOUGH SKIN
"They first ignore and then they laugh
At us...and then we win,"
Gandhi said on our behalf--
Fearful how we might begin
To change the world so we can live
A better life and too, forgive.
TIMID LOTHARIO
After every time I see you,
You're on my mind for days.
I seldom see you--when I do
You set daydreams of you ablaze.
You could just be sitting there,
Or maybe passing in between
Me and no space--nearly dare
To accidentally touch, unseen.
And when you talk, you have my mind
Wrapped around the things you say,
And how you say it--my thoughts wind
Through fantasies, all stepping way
Over the line. And should I act
On any, I'll be smacked or whacked.
WOBBLIE OLD OWL
Still having something left to give
To the younger and the stronger,
A dying owl that has to live
And give a hoot a season longer,
Told me, watch out for the day
When we let prophets lead the way.
A CASE FOR GOD
If there's a god, he's fucking up.
But I'm inclined to think it's us.
From bullies to those sucking up,
The world has turned itself to pus
Of wounds that never, ever heal.
It's us, and we're afraid to change,
Some thinking god'll fix the deal
Or get us through when life gets strange--
Certainly keeping us together
When we need a god to hold
On to, facing stormy weather.
Or times when there's no one who's bold
Enough to fix what's wrong--we're weak.
God helps us through our yellow streak.
BRIGHT EYES
What's the light that's in your eyes
That keeps mine fixed on yours?
Yours could easily mesmerize
Me, getting me down on all fours--
Like a dog that wants to please,
While your cloudless bright eyes tease.
THREE LEGGED STOOL
Love, reality, laughter,
Three legs of a stool
We get up from, chasing after
The latest thing that's cool.
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
From politics to fashion
Can it get more bizarre?
Look at all the silly passion
Folks have for a star
Athlete, actor, singer or,
The politicians acting when
We're facing what we've faced before
And Judgment Day's on us again.
Contradictions beyond the pale--
Who can't see them now
Besides our President from Yale?
Don't think his handlers will allow
Reality to break on through
His rattled wits and narrow view.
GANG MENTALITY
So Beach Boys! Be True to Your School?
Gang mentality, the jingoist,
Thinking neighborhoods can rule.
The eager punks who put their fist
Through situations they can't win
Get knocked down like a bowling pin.
CLASS WAR
Civil war's a tragic thing--
The people weep and bullets sing,
The causes for which people die
Most often based upon a lie
Where winners are no better than
The losers who will try again.
One civil war yet to be won
Will end the days when lies are spun.
CALLER ID
I don't answer PRIVATE CALLER
Invading privacy.
If it's you, excuse me, holler
Out loud your identity
Next time--your name on my phone--
Dial * 82 to let me see
Because if I had only known
That it was you I wouldn't be
Reluctant to pick up, OK?
But can you tell me why you hide
Your name from me and light of day?
From PRIVATE CALLER I decide
From the digital display?
I don't think so, what's the deal?
Which one of us will get more real?
ROMANCE
I think I think of you too much--
Not getting much work done.
Doing what I hope will touch
You--show you I'm the one.
But acting goofy, crying tears--
Cheeks haven't seen these streaks in years.
PINK BIC LIGHTER
Pink Bic lighter left behind--
I hold something that your hand
Held to put a flame to. Mind,
Takes that pink Bic lighter and
Holds it close to light up where
The love is blind and doesn't care.
CAN'T PERFORM
It's a circus, baby, I
Find I can't perform;
Can't clown, certainly not the high
Wire act. Below the norm.
Outside the circus, it's destruction
Derby needing reconstruction.
RESCUE ME
Rescue me from sidewalk rage;
Rescue me from numbing fear;
Pull me from the family stage
Of dealing with those I hold dear.
Rescue me, I'll pay you back,
And get your books back in the black.
ILLICIT
When my hand slid to your hip--
Us standing there, me kissing you,
You let my lips tug at your lip--
Hesitation through and through.
You, nor I, could be sure what
Might happen next, hand on your butt.
But it felt good, and I can say
Tomorrow I can meet the day.
WHAT ALL WOMEN WANT IN A MAN
Don't want someone who can't let go
Of them, down to remote control;
They want somebody who they know
Is someone who'll leave their soul
Alone, and never mess with it
With too much compromising shit.
CRAZY
Ever want someone so bad
You made a costly change?
Gave up a lot, your folks were mad,
Friends think you're getting strange--
You gladly doing some things that
Another time was pure combat?
PITY FUCK
How could I ever sink so low
To beg so much from you?
Don't know why I have to go
So low you have to screw
Me so that I can walk
Like a man and talk the talk.
COME THE DAWN
I like you in the morning
Much as I did last night
With the makeup on adorning
Features in the evening light.
To some extent it's just a con.
You don't need the makeup on--
But you might, and that's OK,
I'm going to love you anyway.
